Bottle strike still on

Apparently Meg is trying to assert the fact SHE is in control. This morning when she woke up, I tried to nurse her. She refused the left side, so I tried the right. She took it. When she was done, I tried the left again. No way. So I tried a bottle of breastmilk (1 oz). She didn’t want it, but I forced it in her mouth. She then realized it was breastmilk, not formula and drank it! So I warmed up 2 more ounces of breastmilk. When I tried to give it to her, she arched her back, whined, clamped her mouth shut, and REFUSED to drink it. I tried again 20 minutes later. She turned her head away every time she saw the bottle, to make it perfectly clear she wants that bottle nowhere near her. So we sat in the nursing chair and I offered her the left side again. She took it. What the hell?

I thawed 8 ounces of breastmilk, mixed it with formula, and sent the bottles to daycare. We’ll see how it goes. I also sent backup jars of food. I practically wrote a page of instructions for them, so hopefully they can follow the directions. I don’t know what to do with her!

She can't make up her mind...

Meg is being a stinker today. This morning, she slept til 8 (yay!), then nursed on one side. She wouldn’t take the other, because she was in such a hurry to go play. At 9:30, when she was hungry again, I decided to give her the other side, so I wouldn’t have to pump. She took it! When she was done nursing, I made a small bottle (3 oz formula, 1 oz breastmilk) to finish the feeding. She took a sip, decided she didn’t like it, and absolutely flat-out refused to drink. So I put it in the fridge and tried again a half-hour later. She twisted her whole body away and made it quite clear she WOULD NOT drink that bottle. Fine. I decided to be sneaky and mixed some of the milk with oatmeal. I fed her the oatmeal and half a jar of food. She didn’t quite finish.

When lunch came, I tried to give her the bottle first (we usually give it after her food), so she would at least have some milk. She refused. Would. Not. Drink. It. I fed her the rest of her lunch, tried the bottle again (no go), then gave up and poured it out.

Afternoon bottle – same thing. Wouldn’t drink bottle, after trying several times (over a 45 minute interval), I give up and fed her a half jar of food.

For dinner, she doesn’t usually get a bottle, just “solid food”. She didn’t quite finish it (how is she not hungry??)

Bedtime: nursed great, refused top-off bottle. I had Husband try to give it to her (maybe she just wouldn’t take bottles from me?), but that didn’t work.

I guess she’s just going through a bottle strike, but I’m worried because I opened a new can of formula this morning. What if its bad? A couple times, she took a sip of the bottle, THEN decided she wouldn’t drink it. And after that, she freaked out at the sight of a bottle. Does it taste bad? Can a sealed can of formula a year away from its expiration date go bad? After its mixed, it smells nasty, but formula always does, right? I tried to smell the powder itself and it doesn’t have a strong smell. For the afternoon and bedtime bottles, I also tried giving her straight breastmilk in a bottle, but couldn’t get her to taste it. For all she knew, it was formula. She now won’t even try a bottle at all. Its like she’s decided she’d like to go back to nursing after all. Like she’s saying: “Mom, about that nursing strike? Let’s just forget it ever happened. I want to nurse ALL THE TIME now.” Has she forgotten we switched to bottles because I wasn’t producing enough milk?

I don’t know what to do for daycare tomorrow. Send her with bottles that she’ll refuse? Today I made up small bottles for each feeding, so after she refused them, I only had to pour out 2-3 ounces, instead of 6. (I can’t save them, because I’m persistent and shove the bottle in her mouth, just to make SURE she won’t even TRY it, which leads to her sputtering and trying to spit the milk back into the bottle)

Its painful to think about sending FIFTEEN ounces to daycare and thinking it all might get poured down the drain. Plus, they’re terrible at following directions. Last week after lunch they gave her a 6 oz bottle instead of the 3 oz. She only drank half of it, so the other half had to be discarded. Then they didn’t feed her again at all, so when she got home at 5:30 she hadn’t eaten since 1 and was starving! I’m afraid if I send jars of food to be given ONLY if she refuses the bottles, they’ll get all confused and mess the whole thing up. What to do?

Ear infection

My Dad left this morning on a business trip. My mom went with him, so Meg was supposed to go to daycare all week. Last night, she woke up at midnight screaming. None of us got much sleep after that. She has an ear infection. Husband stayed home today (and took her to the doctor) and I’ll stay home tomorrow. Every time my mom has gone out of town, Meg has gotten sick. Every time! Its like she knows…

Perfect evening!

Our date went awesome. The plan was to leave Meg with my mom, then go to the movie theater near her house. We left the house late (as always). We dropped her off and got to the movie theater 5 minutes before the movie was supposed to start. There wasn’t a line at the box office (it was 3 pm), we paid the matinee price (yay), bought popcorn, and were in our seats when the previews started.

With about 45 minutes left in the movie, Husband stepped out to call the restaurant to “get in line.” They don’t take reservations, but you can call ahead and wait at home for awhile before coming in (by 7 pm, the wait is usually 2-3 hours). We figured at 5, the wait would be an hour. It was 90 minutes. Since we only called 45 minutes before the movie was over, we would have to wait at the restaurant (close to the theater) 30-40 minutes. We decided to wait – its not like the wait time would be shorter at any other restaurant.

When the movie got over, we went to the restaurant. We walked up, checked in, and they said they could seat us right away! There were TONS of people waiting (but I’m assuming most of them weren’t waiting for a 2-person table).

After we finished, I wanted ice cream. Cold Stone, preferably, but Dairy Queen if necessary. (I love DQ, but was in the mood for Cold Stone) We got out the GPS and determined the closest DQ was about 5 minutes away. We thought the only Cold Stone in the area was at the mall, 15 minutes away, and generally packed – meaning we would have to park far away and it would take forever to walk to the mall, then to the food court.

We walked out the door of the restaurant and saw a Cold Stone across the street. It was crazy! (First of all, how did I not know there was a Cold Stone there??) We walked over, got our ice cream, then drove to mom’s (2 minutes away), picked up Meg, and got her home by bedtime. Our whole date took place within 2 miles of my parent’s house. Everything went perfectly the whole time. On the way home, we picked up a Redbox movie and watched it after putting Meg to bed. It was a great day.

Date Night

I have a date tomorrow night. With my husband. I am so excited. We’re going to a movie together! We haven’t seen a movie together (without Meg) since before she was born. He’s gone alone once, I’ve gone alone once, and we took her with us once (bad idea). This is our email conversation from earlier:

Me: I'm so excited for our date! We haven't seen a movie together (without Meg) since before she was born, right?

Him: I still have the stub in my wallet. It was Night at the Museum 2, two days before she was born. I have been saving it because I thought it might belong in her baby book.

Isn’t that sweet? I had no idea what movie we’d gone to (or even when) and he knew it right off the top of his head! And was thinking about her baby book (which doesn’t exist yet). Of course, at the time I was 9 months pregnant and worried about going into labor in the movie theater. And afterward, I was nursing round the clock. Its understandable I couldn’t remember, right?

No more pump to lug around! (maybe)

I kept forgetting to pump in the afternoon. I’d remember at a later and later time every day, then worry it was too close to Meg’s bedtime feeding to pump. So sometimes I would delay pumping until after the bedtime feeding, so I was sure Meg was getting as much as she wanted. Then she started refusing to nurse at night, so I was obviously getting a lot more milk. I was also pumping 2x a day again (usually afternoon and before bed), 3 if she refused to nurse in the morning. Have I mentioned I hate pumping? So I dropped the afternoon altogether and only pump at night. No lugging the pump to work! Of course, I haven’t yet had a day where I didn’t have to take it. Because, Meg has now started routinely refusing to nurse in the morning, instead of occasionally refusing. So now I pump in the morning at work. Oh well.

and the weaning continues...

Last night, when I put Meg to bed, she refused to nurse. She arched her back, whined, and basically said: I don't want to bother with this, just bring on the bottle!! I couldn't get her to nurse, so I just gave her the bottle. Looks like we've dropped the bedtime nursing session. Now I only nurse her first thing in the morning and pump once during the afternoon. I hope we can keep the morning nursing for a little while, because I'm not ready to be totally done. Meg still likes nursing in the morning, because she likes to get out of bed, snuggle up next to me, and eat slowly while she wakes up slowly. The rest of the day, she just wants to eat as fast as possible. Which means, BOTTLE, STAT!!

I'm trying to reduce the amount of breastmilk in each bottle. The number of ounces she drinks each day is increasing and I only pump once a day (yay!). It seems to be going fine. She'll drink a bottle as long as it has some breastmilk. Right now, they're about 1/3 breastmilk, 2/3 formula. I suppose we'll finish weaning by her first birthday instead of starting weaning at 1, like I thought I would...