Battle with the Bottle

As you know, I have been breastfeeding. However, I am going back to work in four weeks, so we have introduced Vander to the bottle.

He absolutely hates it. 

When he was 5 weeks, we started introducing the bottle with one bottle a day of breastmilk. We had the Playtex Nurser Drop In bottles to start. No luck.

We tried warmed frozen milk, fresh milk, refridgerated milk. Nothing.

So we tried a different bottle that is "Closer to Nature," the Tommee Tippee bottles. They were kind of better...

I have tried having Dylan feed him when he is home, and the results are the same. Vander doesn't do any better with my mom either. 

I mentioned before that I don't plan to pump when I go back to work. So last Wednesday, with 5 weeks until I start back to work, we tried formula. That just pisses him off even more. I am following a transition plan that has you do one bottle the first three days, replacing a midday feeding, and adding in another bottle every two days, so today is day 6 and I had to attempt three formula bottles today.
So far we have tried the Similac Advanced, Similac Supplement and now the Enfamil Newborn. We had a little bit of success with the Enfamil today, which the first time I tried it. He took most of two ounces at one feeding (after a very failed attempt at the Similac Supplement) and then after only a little bit of fight at the beginning he took a full two ounces without any issue at the next feeding. Then after his nap he was pissed at me all over again when I tried a bottle.

Oh, and we also tried a latex nipple today instead of silicone. I definitely determined that he prefers a faster flow nipple, since my milk tends to come out pretty fast. So even though they only had slow flow latex nipples at the store, I poked some extra holes. So who knows if the latex made the little bit of difference today or not?

I feel absolutely terrible about this whole bottle thing. Vander's tear ducts of course started working right at the beginning of the bottle battles, so he will actually be crying when we try to feed him sometimes. I feel like I am a bad mom since I will be going back to work so he really has to get used the bottle.

Then I remind myself that I would still want him to be able to bottle feed so that I can run errands for more than an hour or two or so that Dylan and I can out some evenings. Why does it have to be so hard?! There really are breastfed babies out there that have no issues with bottles! I know some personally, so this isn't just reading it online.

When we had our one month doctor's appointment, I mentioned we would be introducing formula. We got a bunch of samples but I also got a great idea from our pediatrician. When I told him I was not going to be pumping when I went back to work and that I was going to stop breastfeeding, he mentioned that some women are able to get their bodies to just produce milk in the evenings.

I have really been enjoying breastfeeding for the connection it provides and especially for how easy it is. Just whip it out and he can eat. Where as formula or expressed milk requires a way to carry the food, the bottle and then cleaning the bottle afterwards. So I am going to aim for breastfeeding in the evenings and the mornings, but have him do formula during the day at daycare. We will see if that works for me physically (since I don't want to be in pain or uncomfortable during work) and works for Vander at all. I don't my wanting to breastfeed him to make him difficult with a bottle for the daycare ladies all day.

I know my mom maintains this whole battle is why breastfeeding isn't worth it. I would totally agree that if I would have only had six weeks of leave, I would not have tried breastfeeding. That makes me even more glad that I am taking twelve weeks off to watch the little man grow.

We will keep on with the bottle and I know we will win this war in the end.