Operation Bottle

Besides celebrating Todd's birthday, we also had Operation Bottle going in full force last weekend.  Starting when she was 3 weeks old, we attempted to give Lucy a bottle here and there so 1.) I could actually be away from her for more than two hours and 2.) it wouldn't be a big deal when I go back to work at the end of the December.  She took a bottle only a few times we tried and were only having success about 10-20% of the time.  We had tried several different types of bottles (Dr. Brown, Playtex Drop-Ins, and Tommy Tippee) and usually Todd would try to feed her while I was in a different room and still no luck. 

The game plan for the weekend was for Todd to try to give her a bottle starting on Saturday morning when she woke up while I was running.  If she didn't take it, I was going to leave the house the rest of the day and Todd would keep trying until she eventually took it.  Well, as luck as would have it, she slept 10 hours straight on Friday night so when Todd gave her a bottle on Saturday morning, she easily took it.  It was also only the second attempt at using the Tommy Tippee bottles so I think it was a combination of her being really hungry and the new bottle.  The next time she was hungry, Todd fed her again from the bottle and she took it.  Granted, she was only drinking about 1-2 oz. each time but we figured it was a start.  Since she took both bottles that morning, we decided that I didn't need to leave the house for the day which I was excited about because it meant spending time with my two favorite people.  Plus, I honestly had no idea what I was going to do all afternoon by myself that didn't involve spending a lot of money....which meant Target was out of the question. 

The third time she was hungry on Saturday, I went back to nursing her because we wanted to see if she would take a bottle later after I fed her.  Again, she took another bottle!  The only time she didn't take a bottle was on Saturday evening when my parents came over.  Between 6-8 PM is usually her fussiest time of day (although she is getting significantly better and some days she isn't fussy at all during this time) so we weren't surprised she didn't take it.  Also, with my parents being over and more people & distractions than she's used to, we figured it might happen.  We figured her taking four bottles on Saturday was a huge success so the fact she didn't take a fifth one that evening was no big deal.

On Sunday morning, Lucy woke up after sleeping 11 hours straight and Todd successfully fed her 4 oz. from a bottle.  I nursed her the majority of the day but Todd did give her another bottle in the afternoon and she, again, drank from it.  Our plan this week is for Todd to try and feed her either if she wakes up during the night or wakes up early in the morning before he has to leave for work so she is still getting a bottle every day.

I will admit, I had been pretty stressed out the past few weeks about her not taking a bottle because I felt like I couldn't ever leave her or be away from home for more than an hour or two but I feel pretty confident that I could now and she'd hopefully take a bottle.

Operation Bottle: Success!