The Bottle is the Enemy…

My baby has declared the bottle his enemy.

I have been nursing my baby since the day he was born and I had the ultimate goal of nursing him until he turned one year. I am proud to say I reached my goal when my baby turned one on October 26th.

He nursed the first four months solid and I never really gave him a bottle because I was at home with him. I think this was a huge mistake on my part. When I returned to work this child refused to eat a bottle for anyone. This was a nightmare. I cried because my baby wasn’t eating and I felt like this awful parent. Then I was up all night feeding baby because he was eating at night to make up for what he wouldn’t eat during the day. Finally after a couple weeks he changed his mind and started eating from a bottle. My sitter found lots of ways to trick him and get him to eat. She was great, the grandmas were not so lucky and he still gives them a hard time when they babysit.

Since that time I have never been able to get him to take a bottle at home and especially from me. He will cry and throw a fit until he gets to nurse. I don’t get to share the night shift with my husband because he refuses the bottle. So for the past year I always do the night shift and it sucks.

Now Thomas is one and I am ready to start cutting back on the nursing and have him take a bottle and drink cows milk. Sounds simple enough right….wrong!!!!

My sweet baby thinks that the battle is his enemy and will toss it onto the floor every time. OK sometimes he plays with it a little but never drinks it. My oldest child was cut off the bottle at one and put on the sippy cup so I thought maybe we should just skip the bottle and go to the cup. I think I have bought every brand and type of cup out their and once again he refuses it.

Don’t get me wrong I loved nursing my baby and I got super thin from it but I am ready to be done. I want to enjoy an ice cold Diet Coke everyday and coffee chocked full of caffeine in the morning instead of this decaf crap I have been drinking. I am not trying to stop baby from nursing over night but I am trying to let my milk down gradually and bring this to an end at a nice pace. This child is so stubborn that I am scared I will be feeding him until he is two. My husband comment, “why get your drink out of a bottle when the tap version is so much better”. He is no help and finds it all funny.

So I need help! Does anyone have any suggestions or tips on how to get this baby to stop nursing and switch to a bottle or cup? Any suggestions or ideas are welcome because I have run out of ideas.

Mastitis, how did I get that?

The pain was awful. I kept on feeding baby, biting my lip from the anguishing pain. I just kept saying I can do this.
I was having this awful pain when I was nursing my son. It was tender to the touch, my pore nipple looked deformed and twice the size it should have. I just had no clue something was wrong. I just figured it was similar to the pain that you go through when you first start nursing a newborn baby.
The other day at work I started pumping and I filled the bottle full of blood. It freaked me out. It was already hurting really bad to touch and feed or pump but now I was bleeding.
Thomas is almost 10 months old. So what was going on?
I finally called a lactation consultant. Why I waited until now I will never know. She recommended I see the doctor because I probably had Mastitis.
Mastitis, what is that and how did I get it?
This all came about from when my son got sick. He was sick last week and didn't eat like he normally does. On a few occasions I let my breasts get pretty filled up and I didn’t pump. Don't make that mistake. I must have gotten a clogged up duct that then turned into Mastitis. I had never heard of this before. It was hurting really bad every time I fed Thomas. It would burn for the first couple minutes and then the pain would ease up. This is a bacterial infection in the breasts. The doctor put me on antibiotics. I am still sore but it is getting better every day. I would have probably ended up with flu like symptoms if I would have left this go on untreated. I wish now I wouldn't have waited so long to seek advice. I was amazed that through the process I could still nurse and I pushed through the pain for my baby. It is amazing what we do for our little ones.

How I have survive 10 months of breastfeeding

When Luke was a baby I was not able to breastfeed him for very long after I returned to work. He got about 2 months of breastfeeding and that was it. It wasn’t because I was having issues with feeding him it was everything else in my life that lead me to give it up.
I made a promise to myself that I was going to have success and not make the same mistakes with Thomas that I did with Luke. I decided I can do it and I will do it!
I am happy to say I have been nursing for almost 10 months now. My goal is to hit his first birthday and then I can consider weaning him if he wants to be weaned. I am just thrilled that I have made it this far.
My husband and family have not always been the best support system but I have dealt with them. My husband says Thomas is going to be attached to me until he is 5. This isn’t true but sometimes I wonder…. He does prefer nursing over a bottle. That can create some frustration for me at times but I am committed.
I learned a few things along the way that made the experience much better the second time around. This time I bought a good Medela Pump. Don’t buy a cheap pump, don’t do it! With Luke I bought a cheap pump that burnt up really quick. It was a small hand held pump that was easy to use but it didn't pump enough milk and it didn't last long at all. I also worked at a place that did not have anywhere that I could pump. I ended up going into the ladies restroom each day and pumped. It wasn't private and I hated every moment of it. In my current job I have my own office so I can close the door three times a day, keep working and pump. This makes life so much easier.
If you do anything invest in a good pump. It will pay for itself in the first couple months of baby’s life. I know I would have spent a lot more on formula by this point so the pump was a great investment. I just wish I had done it the first time because then I could have used it for both my kids and not just for Thomas.
My second smart move is I pump whenever I can so that I can supply the sitter with milk and I have a stock of it in the freezer. I have bought one can of formula since he was born and I bought it with coupons and spent $7.00 on the one can. I actually threw it away because it had been opened and was getting old.
This time I also had a great sitter who provides such a great support system. She nursed her kids, one to 18 months and the other up to 12 months. She provides that encouragement and support that I really need. My family doesn't provide that support and they wanted me to wean him long ago. They just don't understand. I wanted to say if you want me to stop feeding then you buy the formula.
If you are a nursing mom and you need support I am here for you. I learned a lot from both of my children and I am still learning. Don’t be surprised if I am not seeking advice from other mom’s when it is time to wean Thomas. I don’t think I am going to decide when this happens but he will.