Mission Acomplished: Bottle

Who knew that there were so many babies who refuse bottles out in this world?!? It's very much an unspoken conversation with doctors (and especially lactation consultants!), but I have come to the realization that I will notify every new mom I meet to not hesistate in getting baby adjusted to a bottle sooner than the recommended 6-8 weeks old, especially if they are planning on returning to work.

Ruby really, really struggled with the bottle. And even at this point, while she will take it, she's not terribly happy about it, and it takes a ton of work to get her to take it. She needs to be getting sleepy, the breastmilk needs to be very warm, she needs to be swaddled, she can't be facing me directly, so she needs to either look over my shoulder, or away from me completely. I have to sing her twinkle twinkle over and over and over while she chugs the bottle. But she chugs it, finally.

This has impacted my enjoyment of the last month of maternity leave, I'll be honest. All I've wanted to do is snuggle, love on, and enjoy Ruby, but instead I've had to work on this mission, and it's really tough! But I will feel so much better going back to work knowing that she will take a bottle, I just felt awful about handing her over to someone and saying "FYI- she's not on a bottle yet".

So, I can proudly say Mission Accomplished with our little diva. Good thing she is so unbelievably adorable, because even though it's "work", when she flashes me her dimple smile after a feeding, or when she wakes from her nap, it makes it totally, totally worth it. :)