Monday, February 9, 2009

All Bottled Up

I don't think Kaylani keeps her feelings to herself. She definitely makes everyone around aware when something is bothering her, so I guess I wouldn't say that she's all bottled up emotionally. But when it comes to taking a bottle, she's definitely all bottled up, and not in a good way. Unlike Daddy, she wants no part of a bottle when it comes her way, and unfortunately, that's not a good thing for us.

For the first 6 weeks, Kaylani took a bottle without a problem. She even switched back and forth from nursing to bottle feeding no matter when it was and this was great for 2 reasons. First of all, Daddy got to share the burden of feeding (during the day, but more importantly in the middle of the night) with Mommy. It actually sounds like it would be a hassle for Daddy, but I loved it because it was time I got to spend with my little girl. And also, it lead to the second reason why bottle feeding was great, which was that Mommy got to take a little breather.

Once Kaylani got on a more normal sleep schedule, I would wake up with Kaylani in the morning sometime between 6 and 7am. Then, I'd kick off my day by feeding her and putting her back to sleep before getting ready for work. That was enough to get me off to a great start to my day with some quality time with Kaylani and let Mommy sleep for just a few more hours after a couple of night shifts. But for the last 8 weeks, that hasn't happened, and tonight, we took action. We bought a new bottle with a new nipple (Playtex NaturaLatch) that was supposed to be closer to breastfeeding, and gave it a shot. Sadly, we misfired.

Kaylani wanted nothing to do with the bottle, just like 8 weeks ago when we last tried. Actually, that's not true. Last time she screamed at the top of her lungs at the thought of it. This time, she played with the bottle for a little bit, took some milk and spit it out down her neck, then cried until we took the bottle away. We tried this for about 20 minutes to see if she would adjust, and she did maybe a little bit, but not enough where we could say she actually took the bottle.

So unfortunately, Kaylani is not back on the bottle yet. Daddy's not either yet because of the diet so maybe we can have a little competition to see who takes a bottle first. I'm really hoping Kaylani wins, and I hope she wins soon. After all, a bottle means I get my quality time back, and more importantly, it means Mommy can take a breather again. And maybe, just maybe, it also means that Mommy and Daddy could take a breather together while someone babysits for a few hours. Now that's what I call motivation!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Conner's in that phase too. We jump up and down when he takes a bottle right now. One thing that helped was getting a faster flow. We're hoping it gets better w/ age.

JonnyTam13 said...

Does jumping up and down help him take a bottle? I figured that would make her spit up instead of take the bottle, but I'll try that tonight :)

Anonymous said...

Yeah, and then after you jump up and down, turn her upsidedown. :) Let me know how that works out for you.

Sheesh. I was just trying to share your parenting woes.

JonnyTam13 said...

Hehe, just playing. I do appreciate knowing that people are going through the same thing we are! For the record, we tried again tonight with Mommy nowhere in site (minus the turning upside down) and made a little progress, but not quite enough. We'll try again tomorrow!

Tom Sherman said...

My mom used to put some bourbon on the tip of the bottle. Works a charm!

JonnyTam13 said...

I can tell...