I’ve had one goal the past 3 months: to successfully transit Finn completely to direct boob feeding. And I’m pleased to say that we’re finally there, more or less.
After having tried formula feeding (with Tru) and expressed bottle feeding (with Kirsten), this is so ridiculously convenient.
Instead of having to spend 40 minutes at the pump, washing the bottles, sterilizing everything, warming the milk, then finally feeding the baby, I just have to pop out my boob and I’m done. When I’m out, my baby bag is more like a baby satchel with some spare clothes, diapers and wipes.
But there’s a downside to it, which is that baby Finn now refuses the bottle. Did I say refuse? I actually meant that he hates it. With a passion. He makes a face, pushes it out with his tongue and looks at me like “hey, don’t you give me no bottle when I can see boobs right there. Now give me the real stuff.” But you see, I’m training him for those days where my breasts are unavailable and he’s with my mom or in-laws. So I pass him to the husband for boot camp bottle training and he goes into meltdown mode. He’ll struggle and scream and tears will be flowing out of his eyes and milk will be sputtering everywhere like he’s choking. And amidst all the frenzy, I’m pretty sure I can make out something like “BOOBS!!! GIVE ME BOOBS!!”
Sometimes, when he’s positively starving, he’ll struggle through a feed like it’s the nastiest thing he’s ever had to drink. Then when he’s done, he’ll launch into a complainy monologue of baby talk to drive home the point.
Other times, I’ll cave and offer him a boob and while he’s drinking, he’ll put one hand on it and look at me as if to say “just so you know, this is my property.”
Ok, it’s really cute but this means that being apart from him for any length of time at all will be a problem.
Any tips on how to reintroduce the bottle?
