I Digress

How bottles saved my sanity ~ late 2010
All along I have been wanting to breastfeed my baby girl or at the very least pump and bottle feed.
From birth she has been a great latcher and breastfeeder and was a wonderful baby up until 1 week old. From that point forward my awesomely perfect little girl started screaming for hours at a time during the day until around 1am. She always showed signs that she was hungry no mater how many times I fed her. From 8pm to 1am the only thing that would make her happy was being attached to my boob. To top that off she would not sleep at all during the day anymore even though you could clearly see she was extremely tired. I felt like I was going crazy, I spent all day long in the baby's room feeding her. I did not have any time to brush my teeth or even eat. The only thing that remained awesome about my little girl was that she slept very well at night. So I lived my days waiting and yearning for 1am so that I could finally get a few moments to brush my teeth, cram a sandwich down my throat and get some sleep.
I reached my breaking point. It was no longer 8pm to 1am of screaming, it was all day long. Luckily we had a doctors appointment scheduled for that day. Kaitlyn was gaining weight like she should so I was doing everything correctly but going insane... So I asked the doctor about pumping and using the F word (formula). She said at this point it would benefit all of us. As soon as we got home David headed to Babies R Us to pick up some supplies.
The first bottle was all formula since I have had no free time to pump any breast milk. Kaitlyn wolfed the 2oz down in 7 minuets flat! The look of relief and content on her face when she finished was well worth the $80 we just spent on bottles and other supplies. She then slept for the first time during the day since she was 1 week old. An hour later she was ready for more. This time I gave her the 1oz of breast milk I was able to pump mixed with 1oz of formula. She gulped it down yet again and went for a 4 hour nap.
I know this is the first day and we have only done two bottles so far but I feel like I got my little angel back. Also she is a lot easier to burp when fed with a bottle so that leads to less gas and a happier baby!
I am so happy with our decision to do this. The only problem now is I am so happy she is happy that I cannot sleep when she is napping. I just want to watch her sleep.


Digression over.