my battle with the bottle.

Baby bottles, that is.

"It seems the little miss has picked up some fussy traits from her dad when it comes to feeding. ⠀ After battling her with the bottle for weeks and the stress of returning to work mounting I caved and bought Minbie bottles to try, figuring I had nothing to lose. I'll openly admit I was a huge skeptic and considering the price of a bottle I wondered if it would be worth the money. ⠀
Verdict? I wish I had tried it earlier and saved myself the stress and wasted precious breastmilk**. She can be screaming her head off and I would still be able to get her to take the bottle instead of giving her the real deal directly behind her head (.)(.) which as any breastfeeding mum would know is no easy feat." **Note: Leftover breastmilk makes for a great addition to bubba's bath!

When the little miss took two bottles of formula with ease at two days old in hospital I thought my journey to introduce bottle feeds alongside breastfeeds would be easy, I couldn't have been more wrong. The advice given to new mums is that it's not recommended to pump or to introduce the bottle until around 4-6 weeks when the milk supply and latching has been properly established. With me trying to do things by the books I did what was recommended and gave miss a bottle of EBM (expressed breast milk) at 6weeks which she took with ease from my mother in law. I was stoked, my initial thought seemed to ring true.  However as I was not needing her to take the bottle I decided I would only offer her the bottle once a week just to maintain that bottle memory and that was when we encountered our first hurdle.

The following week I proudly pumped a full 125ml bottle to offer her fresh and was met with rejection. I was devastated but I wasn't ready to give up.  Honestly whoever penned the quote don't cry over spilled milk never had to pump for half an hour just so there's enough milk for one feed. At 8weeks old I pumped a smaller bottle for daddy to offer her but once again she was not interested. I began asking around to see what brands people were using and having success with which was when we struck gold with Pigeon bottles. Feeds with Pigeon bottles weren't easy or predictable, you just never knew whether she was going to take it or not which made any time I had away from her stressful. There was one Sunday that I ducked off for lunch and a movie with the man and she decided that she would not take a bottle for the 5hr duration I away from her. This on-off acceptance of the Pigeon bottle was short-lived. At 12weeks she decided she had enough of the Pigeon bottles and returned to rejecting every bottle we offered her. I decided at that point to leave bottles for a while, blaming the sudden change on a leap (if nothing makes sense it's always a leap or teething...right?)

The 18week mark saw pressure mounting to try get her to take a bottle again as I had begun work part time. Luckily for me I work in my family business so I was able to bring bub with me on the road (I'm an on road sales rep). I dragged my mum along with me to watch her as I ducked in and out of customer's shops but as the weather quickly heated up in October I knew it was time to tackle the bottle issue again.

With nothing to lose I put in an order for Minbie bottles. I was a huge skeptic and wondered if all those ads that inundated my feed about Minbie were true. When the bottles arrived I eagerly attempted a feed, wondering whether she would take it from me. I poured a tiny bit to try and she lapped it up! I got so excited I texted Chris, my mother, my best friend and my mothers group immediately with a photo attached.

The latest installment of Minbie success for the little miss takes place at daycare. The educators noted that children usually have a hard time accepting bottles from them however after her first day we knew that Minbie had won that battle. The second battle that Minbie conquered at daycare was formula. Having been an exclusively breastfed baby she never took a liking to formula. This is no longer the case! She will now happily gulp down a bottle of formula -- just not from me, you win some you lose some. The miss will now happily take the bottle from me, her dad, her grandmother, heck she'd even take it from a stranger! We should probably work on that last one though...

Miss is still currently using the Newborn bundle with the 1+ paced teat

*This post was sponsored.

- margaret