Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Skin vs. Plastic...

Not even a debate. Zachary hates plastic nipples. Unfortunately in this case of breastfeeding vs bottle feeding he'll have to concede at some point. So far, no concession seems likely. He screams, pukes, chokes, and overall refuses to calm down during bottle feeding times. All I have to do is put the nipple to his lip or cheek and he flies into a fit of madness and screaming. I've only tried three times and only gotten him to suck and swallow once.....I know it will happen again but it's frustrating. I'm sure he feels much more frustrated than I! Especially judging by the time it takes him to stop crying in between tries.

Since I don't remember this transition with Dylan, I'm having to go back to square one and try my luck at it. The only thing I remember with Dylan was he took a bottle no problem...I'm sure that I blocked out the first few attempts due to the huge failures that they were.

So I looked up on Asksears.com and found that you shouldn't put the nipple in his mouth but let him take it by himself. Mistake #1. Tricia and I had a feeling he wasn't eating much during some of his feedings. This almost proves that he's really not hungry but just looking for mommy and Zachary time. I don't blame him. I've been looking for Mommy time for some time now. Just occupying the same space with cats, kids and mommy DOESN'T count!

Expecting Zachary to follow the same "pattern" with bottle feeding as breastfeeding. Mistake #2. So, wer'e less than 10 minutes since the last failed attempt, he normally naps from 9ish to 2ish with a breastfeeding stop in the middle, he's sitting in his swing chair looking at the ceiling fan and completely happy. (this is until I write this down)



I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to relearn this process because I forgot everything and because I've pushed one baby through this phase, I'm thinking that I know everything. Mistake #3.


He just started fussing. Should I try again? Did the Berenstein bears go into the Spooky Old Tree? Yes! He dares!

Never mind. He feel asleep. Pattern schmattern. Baby's are difficult.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Struggling a bit....but ok.

Over the past week, Dylan and I have had a similar stomach virus. Dealing with the two of us plus a three week old baby has made Tricia feel like a caged animal. Today she demanded a trip outside our home. We went to the mall to exchange some of Zachary's gifts and have some non-dairy lunch. The good news? Dylan was hungry for lunch, he ate his lunch of penne pasta and marinara sauce and afterwards produced his first solid in a week.

The measurables from the last week include but are not limited to......no breakfast food was eaten, three pukes on the kitchen table, lost track of toilet deposits, one daddy toilet/bed-ridden for one day, no broccoli was eaten, and the kicker....he was in a great mood the whole time!(the same can not be said about the daddy) I should qualify this by saying, he was already a bit more irritable from the arrival of Zachary and we are still in the process of figuring out where the stomach virus disposition and the Zachary displacement emotions differ. Oh well, we have a number of years to figure that out....the Zachary displacement emotions that is.