I was just reading the check-in posts and saw you mention your bottle boot camp. I just wanted to say you're not alone there either! I bfed but DS got about a bottle a day for weeks 2 - 5 or so, then we slacked off the second month, very few bottles just because it was more convenient to just nurse. Then around 10 weeks I was like, uh, I have to go back to work at 14 weeks, let's start trying bottles again. He had had maybe one week without a bottle at all, and he wanted NOTHING to do with it.
We tried everything - different nipples, only DH feeding, me leaving the house totally, even last resorts like nursing but then sliding him off of my nipple and onto the bottle nipple. It was a mess and I was SO worried about daycare. He would drink maybe an ounce at a time from a bottle when it was finally time to go to daycare - if that.
Well, our DCP (and some bumpies!) assured me that this was very normal and that he would eat - and eventually he did! He didn't eat a ton the first few weeks, just enough to keep extreme hunger away I think (maybe 5 - 6 oz. total over 3 feedings? Not a lot), and I was sending 3 4-oz. bottles. He made up for it by nursing a lot when we got home and at night. Anyway, after about 3 weeks he was totally great on the bottles at finishing them with no problem, and did bottles great at home and daycare.
Just to say, if boot camp doesn't go great tomorrow, do not think all hope is lost!
Re: *mcatmay*
You ladies are awesome! Mommyz, you have no idea how your post lightened my heart. I was shut in the bedroom with the computer when i read your post, waiting to see how the first bottle would go for DH and DD. When i left them, there was a lot of crying and my heart was breaking. Your post gave me the encouragement i desperately needed. DH came up 20mn later and said that DD had guzzled down 2oz when i left the room - she has never, ever, EVER done that, even when i left the house!!! This is ONE bottle, granted, but it's one bottle more than she's ever done.
We'll see how the rest of the day goes - but i know now, that even if it doesn't go well, all hope is not lost. Thank you so very much!!!!
forgot one thing... DS hated the silicone nipples. They weren't soft enough (apparently I got squishy boobs lol). He latched right onto the latex (brown nipples) with the playtex drop ins.
my DD never took more than 4.5-5oz of BM in a bottle the whole time she was a baby. She made up for it by nursing every 3 hrs when I was with her.
Babies will not let themselves go hungry