B #4 – Bottle

Now that Max is completely weaned, I can better keep track of his “intake”. He typically drinks between 24 – 32 oz. of formula a day. He is eating 3 “meals” a day that each contain a meat, a veggie, and a fruit. He gets water with his meals and formula if he wakes up during the night, first thing in the morning, before each nap, and before bed.

A friend who has a baby girl about 11 weeks younger than Max had to wean earlier than she would have liked due to acid reflux. She was commenting that on of the things she missed was having a hand free to caress and stroke her daughter. And, I have observed that her daughter regularly holds her own bottle. Her comment got me thinking. It is so amazing how different each child is and we laugh about how completely different our two children are and wonder if they will get along when they grow up. I almost never caressed and stroked Max. I started paying more attention after our conversation which was while I was still breastfeeding. First of all, he finds it very distracting and will stop eating/drinking if you caress him. Second of all, usually, I need one hand to hold him (he is a squirmy little guy) and one to either hold the boob so it didn’t suffocate him and/or hold the bottle. He CAN hold the bottle, but 98% of the time, he chooses not to. He would rather grab my hair, grab his hair, grab my nose, touch my mouth, put his fingers in my mouth (if I happen to be talking or singing even better and a little nip with my teeth brings a quick smile), touch my hair, grab my hair, touch my hair, etc. It is no coincidence that both Naomi and I wear our hair back and no jewelry when around him.

Part of his go to bed routine is to close his blinds, turn on the white noise ocean sounds (from a clock radio), grab his blanket, and rock him while he drinks his bottle. When he is done drinking, I will let him squirm a little bit in my arms to get any gas out, then I put him in his crib and cover him with his blanket. Most of the time, he smiles as I walk out the door saying night, night, momma loves you.

The times that he doesn’t smile and quietly fall asleep is when the routine is screwed with…like TODAY for example. He only slept one hour this morning and woke up at 11 am. Naomi didn’t bring him back from the park and put him down for his afternoon nap until 3 pm. This is too long. Instead of a smile, we had 40 minutes of fussing and screaming before he fell asleep. While this was going on, Naomi said, maybe he isn’t tired. I nicely said (really, it was nice), no, he is over tired and that it would have been better to put him down around 2 pm instead of 3. Once he was asleep, she apologized and explained that he was so happy playing at the park that she didn’t think he was tired, but that she would make sure she came back earlier in the future. It is very stressful for us both when he gets that worked up. Thank goodness it doesn’t happen very often. I am sure it is a double stress for her because I am here and if I am not in a meeting, which I wasn’t today, I totally interfere. I can’t help it. I am sure that I give them both mixed signals because I can only let him cry for 5 – 10 min.. I’m not talking whinny crying, but full out rage cry. I don’t want her to go get him, but “I” want to selectively get and sooth him. I am sure that if I was 100% committed to CIO it would be different, but Max has never, ever fallen asleep in a full all out rage cry. Of course, the longest I was able to let him cry that hard was about 20 – 30 minutes.

Anyway, I am still trying to relax from the scream fit.

Back to bottle.

Max will take lesser amounts of bottle during the day, but will usually drink at least 6 – 8 oz before going down for the night. If he drinks less, he will most likely wake up during the night.

It’s funny. I don’t know if he does this with Naomi, but with me he likes to switch sides. I think he got used to doing that with the breast feeding. He will drink about 4 – 6 oz. when I am holding him on, let’s say, the right side. Then he will stop, want to be switched to the left side, and then finish up. Very funny. At least, I think so.

Still a bit rattled from the tantrum. Like I said, good thing it doesn’t happen often.

Tomorrow will be a hard day. I have a face to face work meeting from 8 – 5 at a location about 50 miles from home. I need to allow 2 hours to get there and 2.5 hours to get home, which means I will be up at 5 am and need to leave be 6 am and likely will not be home before 7 – 7:30. Naomi has agreed to come early and stay late. Not only will it be a long day, Max will still be sleeping when I leave and will be asleep again for the night before I get home. I really hate that. I miss him already and it hasn’t even happened yet. It reminds me of how fortunate I am to work from home and not have a regular commute and that my travel and face to face very often.