B-O-T-T-L-E
After Elgin's first fledgeling but promising bottle feedings at just after the four week mark, I felt hopeful that his desire to eat from a bottle would only increase, and his comfort level would grow. Instead, he eventually made a clear choice to reject the bottle and express his strong distaste for eating from anything else but my breast.
Flattering? Sure. Worrisome? Yeeeeeesssss.
I went through the same thing with Henry, but I didn't go back to work full time until he was 11 months old and was using a sippy cup while away from me. It worried me then, but even in his early months, he would eat very well in the afternoons and sometimes from a few of his chosen people from which he would agree to take a bottle.
Elgin's bottle refusal was about to send me into a tailspin of ulcer onset. When I go back to work, will he go 8 hours without eating if I can't make it over to feed him at lunch?
After enlisting combo feeding pro Stacy to help a couple of weekends ago, and still only hearing cries from my hungry baby, and then Elgin's scant eating while I was away at a book club meeting, I decided to wait a while before trying again. I also researched more bottle options and was intrigued by the consistent stories of moms who had the most success with a certain inexpensive brand and their latex nipple option.
Last night, I made an optimistic dash to purchase one of those bottle combos. My anticipation at replacing our most-expensive-bottles-on-the-mass-market with a cheap but proven option was also making me feel OK about shopping.
I located the Playtex brand bottles, my bottles of hope, but just two brands over were shelves lined with the Born Free bottles and a video promising that my baby would be getting the best nipples and least amount of air and that the small amount of air combined with the perfect nipple and the very best plastic would ensure a full scholarship to an ivy league university at age 16.
These bottle failed us with H, and they were failing us with EW.
But, I felt myself strangely drawn to the most expensive option. I even picked up a pack of a different nipple style that cost more than the Playtex bottle and nipple combo. What the heck? I spent years in marketing! I know lipstick when I see it, people. It's one major reason that I don't like to shop. What is it about having an infant that makes me feel compelled to spend more--to gravitate towards certain brands?
Thankfully, reason and research prevailed. I put back the pricey nipples and firmly grasped the Playtex bottle and walked with great determination to the checkout where I explained to the cashier that I was going to take the bottle home to see if my baby would eat from it! (She didn't look up.)
I made it home and warmed a cheapie bottle of breastmilk just before Elgin started his sweet, funny rooting. Cory and I wordlessly made the bottle hand off, and he offered it to our baby who took it immediately and even continued to eat when I walked into the room to snap a picture. By the time the feeding was over, he ate 2.5 ounces, the most he ever took from a bottle, even when we first thought he was doing OK with it.
Thank you, Playtex latex! You are perfect... and cheap. I think I'll buy some more of you.
Born Free. You can suck it! (Because Elgin won't.)
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