bottle

I wish I had a picture to document the happiness that had now come to our little home.

Lena is taking a bottle again!

We realized about a month (or more) ago that she wouldn't take a bottle. I tried breast milk, formula, and apple juice. But she would not have it. I started introducing the bottle once a day, just to get her familiar with it again. But it was a no-go. Lena just cried and cried. She started crying at just the sight of the bottle. She arches her back and just screams when we tried to feed her.

This little girl is stubborn.

She knows what she wants and how she wants it.

[Yes, that is the dress I wore to church. She's learned how to better use her hands, and she'll stick anything in her mouth.]

We thought maybe she just didn't want to take it from me, since I'm the one who normally feeds her. Or my mom thought maybe she's just associated the couch and the rocking chair with nursing because those are the places I always feed her. So I tried feeding her at the kitchen table. I asked my friends who live near me what they did when their kids wouldn't take a bottle. I talked to my doctor, too. He said that I might just have to do what no parent wants to do - let their kid go hungry until they'll take anything from anyone. My mom came over and tried feeding her, as well. Took her outside into an unfamiliar area to see if that made a difference. My mom came back from her 20 attempt, gave Lena back to me and said, "good luck when she's 14."

Thanks mom.

I didn't like the idea of just flat out not feeding her anything, so I decided that I'd feed her half of what she normally gets, and if she wanted more, she'd have to take the rest out of a bottle. But she wouldn't. All day, I was only feeding her half, but she never fussed. She never cried to tell me she was hungry.

At the end of the day, she was playing on the floor and I knelt down to pick her up. Immediately she curled into me like she was getting ready to nurse. My heart broke. She was hungry and hadn't told me all day. I took her back to her bedroom and cried while I nursed her and decided I didn't want to do that anymore.

Lewis and I decided we'd still introduce the bottle every day (to see if a miracle would happen) but we'd wait until her 6 month doctor appointment before we tried anything drastic.

Then I talked to another friend who told me that they had to heat the milk up as warm as they could get it before their little girl would take it. I thought that was worth a try.

So a few days later, I put formula in a bottle, stuck it in a bowl in the sink and ran hot hot hot water over it until it was as very warm. Made sure the nipple was warm, too. Stuck it in her mouth.

And she drank the whole thing.

Hallelujah.

So now Lewis and I are going on a date. Without a baby. Because if Lena gets hungry, she'll take a hot bottle.