The bottle saga continues
Posted by Missy Roberts at 7:57 PM About Jake
Today was the day we set aside to have Jacob eat from a bottle. This whole week I took Jacob to Nani's office during lunchtime to have her give him the bottle. Of course he screamed and screamed each time the nipple touched his lip. There wasn't really enough time to keep trying so each day we had to give in and I had to nurse him so that Nani could go back to work. So we both decided that on Saturday we would spend the entire day trying to feed him from the bottle. The plan was to have Nani spend the night Friday night and she would be the one to wake up with him and only give him the bottle the entire day. Something came up and nani couldn't spend the night so when Jacob woke up at 1:30 I nursed him. Then he woke up at 7:00 and we played for a while then at 7:30 I tried giving him a bottle. I had no breastmilk stored so I mixed 4 oz. of formula to start with. While playing in his exersaucer I introduced the bottle to him in a playful way. He reached for it and of course, as with everything else, he tried to put it straight in his mouth...good sign I thought. After about a minute of playing with the nipple in his mouth, I tried tipping the bottle so he could taste the formula. He did and it wasn't too bad...so I took him out of the exersaucer and onto my lap. Again we played with the bottle for a little bit and then tried giving him some forumla. He wasn't so keen on it. My next attempt was walking around with him while saying "mmmmm" and "yeah" while giving him the bottle. The second he tasted the formula he screamed. I kept trying and trying and he kept screaming. After about 45 minutes of this and me getting worried that the formula was going to go bad he started to make some progress. He was crying so much that he was trying to soothe himself. In his attempts to soothe himself, he actually took some gulps of the formula. YEAH! But, after a couple of gulps, the screaming continued. Nani arrived at about 8:20 and took over. Finally after 1 hour and 30 minutes he managed to drink 3 ounces! Not enough in my book, but at least some progress was made. I made him some rice cereal becasue I wanted him to have something in his stomach for breakfast:)
At his next feeding, I was able to pump earlier in the morning so he tried some breastmilk. I thought for sure this would go over much better, but not so much. Nani was doing a good job with him as he fussed and cried and eventually managed to drink 2 ounces before putting himself to sleep. I was still worried that he wasn't eating enough, but had to get over it. I knew today was going to be hard and that he might not eat what he should. After his nap and a little play time we tried again with some breast milk and formula. This time we tried a different bottle. One that was recommended to me, but that I had not tried yet. I've had it sitting on the counter for about a week, but hadn't opened it up yet. This was now the 5th type of bottle we were going to try. So in went ONE ounce of breast milk...I am not going to waste that stuff! After a little bit of fussing, he drank it all up. We then put another 2 ounces and he slurped it up quickly...I had no more breastmilk so I mixed two ounces of formula. He hesitated a little, but with some coaxing from Nani and her gentle touch, he drank all of that too! OH MY GOSH!!! He did it! I was so excited. He played some more and then decided a nap was in order.
During his nap Bill and I went to run some errands. Bill finally put the fish tank in the house so we needed to get some stuff for the tank and bought a few more fish. Bill picked one out for Father's day and I got one for Jacob. When we returned Jacob was awake and playing with Papa. about an hour later he got hungry again. This time we started him off with 4 ounces of breastmilk. Again he was a little fussy in the beginning, but he drank it up fairly quickly. Then we made some formula and he drank about an ounce of it and decided he was done. I mixed up some cereal to see if he would eat it and Papa fed him about 2 tablespoons or so of cereal. Good dinner!
I am so proud of Jacob and excited that he is finally taking the bottle. Today was rough, but thank God for my mom. She is a trooper and really got Jacob to take the bottle. Now the real test is going to be if I can give it to him. My mom will stay the night tonight and give him the bottle through the night and then we'll go at it again tomorrow. I don't want to nurse him until Monday at the earliest in hopes that he sticks with the bottle. But I also don't want him not to nurse anymore. I don't know how much longer I will actually nurse him, I just know I'm not quite ready to stop, but I do want him to take the bottle to give me a break once in a while and to allow Bill and I to get out of the house without Jacob once in a while so we can have some "alone" time. I also don't want to have to be exclusively nursing Jacob until he is 1. I've heard those choppers can really hurt!
He is such a good boy and as my mom kept reminding me, no one is perfect so I guess this is his imperfection. Today was successful. He did not nurse at all (well except for 1:30 this morning) and we will see what happens tomorrow.
Tomorrow is Father's Day (Bill's first) so we are taking the dads to the Dodgers vs. Angels game at Dodger stadium. This will be Jacob's first baseball game and his first sporting event. He has two outfits for tomorrow because Dad and Grandpa are Angels fans and Papa is a Dodgers fan. So of course he will please everyone and wear a Dodger's outfit and then an Angel's outfit. I know Bill is excited about his first Father's Day and I hope Jacob and I can make it special for him.
Well I'm feeling a little better about this bottle situation and I thank God for answering prayers and having Jacob eat from the bottle. I just pray that this continues. So until next time, mommy and daddy love you!