Introducing the Bottle

Owen takes a bottle

Currently Owen and I are attached at the breast - generally, if he sleeps for 5-6 hour stretches at night, it means that the following day will be devoted exclusively to feeding Owen every 45 minutes to an hour. But I also have a breast pump to help us store milk for the fall semester when I return to school and Owen stays home with Dave, and I've begun to use it.

Dave and I decided to introduce a bottle around one month of age to free me from my feeding duties, to give Dave some of the feeding responsibility, and to allow babysitters to one day come into our lives (we are definitely not ready for that yet - but that's another post). We had 1.5 ounces of milk to work with, which is approximately a serving and a half for a baby. It's not a lot.

The evening we introduced the bottle, we had Dave hold it so as not to confuse Owen (Mom has a breast and a bottle? Who is this magical lady?) We had been warned: Don't be surprised if he refuses the bottle. Ha! Owen took the bottle without even a raised eyebrow (ok, Owen doesn't know how to raise his eyebrows yet, but if he did...)

Owen has proved once again that (1) he will do whatever he pleases, other newborn habits be damned, (2) he is awesome at accepting change, and (3) when he is hungry, it doesn't matter what form the milk arrives in, he will eat it.