For one bottle a day, it'll be okay

Well - we did it - we bit the bullet and tried giving him a bottle today. Although I use the word 'try' losely, considering we didn't really have to try, but just do.

And with that ...

One heart broke a little bit, while another grew a little bit.



The bottle is half full, I tell myself...

4.5 ozs full, pumped by me at 9:50AMm- taking all of 10 minutes.



And then, paw in paw, Papa and LC bonded.

Over their first meal...



It was literally an instant. We carefully thought out where to feed him - where he is most comfortable, and fed by Mommy. The glider or the couch. We chose the glider in his nursery. Coincidentally where he had his last meal at 7;20am.

I told J how to hold him upright, and that he may need to play with the bottle a little bit in getting it in LC's mouth because it was unfamiliar territory (like how when we tried to give him a new paci and he had trouble learning to suck on it since the nipple was different from his Soothie pacis).

I prepared to leave the room since I thought maybe my scent and presence would confuse LC. But I didn't. I sat and watched.

And the minute the bottle got to his lips...he was golden, "latching" right on and sucking away..



For 10 minutes...clearing 4.5 ozs, wide eyed, staring up at his Papa, while his Papa stared down at him in awe...

And done.


The boy doesn't mess around when it comes to his grub that's for sure! Not a drop was left!

10 minutes in, and 10 minutes out!



One burp later, a satisfied LC rests on his Papa's shoulder.



A small drop of milk lingering on his lip....just like how it does when Mommy feeds him.

A small piece of my heart may have broken off, but a larger part of my heart swelled with pride as he mastered one of many challenges that life throws at you. And he was completely unaffected...feeling fullness in his belly, and a new bond with his Papa.

And that's okay -- for one bottle a day at this point -- I will give him over to let someone else bond with him in their own very special way. It is needed for daycare in September, so we just got a jump on that, and now our family can enjoy feeding him as well.

But I know that he knows his Mommy and remembers our special bond that we worked 7 weeks to perfect.

: sidenote, just this week, he has latched on like a pro every time, and the soreness...it's subsided...I'd say we are "established" :)

Because 2 hours and 1 massive poop later, he gazed up into my eyes, and ate his lunch and fell asleep on my shoulder...and that little piece of my heart that broke off when I saw him take his bottle...it glued right back on.