After bottle-feeding both Jacks and Cody, I was all fired up about the third time's being the charm and having a successful breastfeeding relationship with Luke. He nursed within the first hour after his birth, and we refused all pacifiers and bottles in the hospital (there was even a little sign on his isolette that said, "NO PACI"). I waited to introduce a paci or a bottle once we got home too, so that we could really get a hang of nursing and avoid any nipple confusion.
Well, it seems I may have waited too long. I've been trying to introduce a bottle in the last few weeks so that I might be able to leave Luke with someone for a few hours so I can go to the dentist, get a haircut, or (most importantly) volunteer in Jackson's classroom. So far Luke has rejected Avent, Dr. Brown's, Playtex, Gerber and BreastFlow bottles. The child gets a look on his face that says, "Ew, gross" better than any words ever could, and he tongues that bottle nipple out of his mouth just as fast as he can. Occasionally, he tries chewing on it to lure us into getting excited that FINALLY, he might be about to start drinking it, but then he smirks (or more often, screams) at our naivete and spits that bottle right back out.
My little parasite seems to prefer that his boob juice come straight from the tap, and he just won't settle for anything less. But considering how hard he and I have worked to get to this point, and considering how proud I am that he's 11 weeks old and my body and I have been keeping him alive and thriving and FAT all this time, how can I really complain? Plus, when he snuggles up next to HIS boob after nursing and puts his little arm around it possessively as he falls asleep...well, no MNO or few hours of child-free time could possibly be better than that.
1 comment:
Aaaw, I too absolutely love how sweet breastfeeding is. And even though we introduced a bottle here after only 2 weeks, Raemi at 7 months STILL will hardly tolerate a bottle. When I had surgery and her daddy had to give her a bottle for 48 hours I nearly thought she was going to starve rather than take it.
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