To bottle or not?

The end has come.  I am going back to work next week after having 5 months off to be with my kids. It has really been an amazing time, as I reflect back on these months. I got a chance to see what it is like to be a Stay-At-Home Mom (SAHM), something I always craved deep down to be. Now that I have had the chance to experience it, I have decided that staying home full-time is not my cup of tea. Don't get me wrong, for some its a choice, for others there is no choice. I worked full-time for the first two years of Suhana's life and was always guilt ridden of not spending enough time with her, but the time I did spend with her was quality. I always wished I was a SAHM in those years. Now that I have had the honor of experiencing life as a SAHM, I think I need a balance between work and staying home, and this is what I get to have now. I will work part time when I return next week, I get to use my brain, have adult conversations, hang out with my friends (I actually like the people I work with :)) and I get to spend more time with my kids and be a mom. Staying at home full-time is a lot of work. I have many friends who are doing an amazing job with their kids and they are sane women!!! I admire them but for me a good balance is my cup of tea.

With that said, the post title is about Jiana not taking a bottle. She was bottle fed for the first few days of her life in the NICU and then every night Avikar gave her a bottle for the 10pm feeding. Around January we stopped giving her the bottle, because it was easier for me to feed her and (we got a little lazy). So, fast  forward to February and we start trying to give her a bottle feed. NOT HAPPENING! For the last month or so, we have tried every type of bottle, nipple, person and she flat out refuses to take it!! This has been stressing me out quite a bit as you can imagine, since I am going back to work next week and who ever watches her needs to be able to feed her. Yesterday the Lactation Consultant, Gisele, from Long Beach Memorial came to my house to help me out. These women make it their life's work to help babies eat, be it from a breast or bottle. If anyone had a chance to make Jiana drink from a bottle it was going to be Gisele. I had all my bottles ready and my milk thawed. Gisele, tried and tried and Jiana refused. She cried, she knocked the bottle from her hand, sputtered, but refused to take the bottle. OMG!

Gisele's assessment: She is one stubborn baby! She has lost the reflex needed to suck with her tongue and move the milk back into her mouth. Jiana is also teething really bad, and so having any type of nipple up against her gums is very uncomfortable. We need to transition her straight to a sippy cup. Don't worry mom, it's going to be okay. Until she gets the hang of the sippy cup, she needs to have rice cereal diluted with breast milk spoon fed to her. When you get home from work, know that she is going to want to eat A LOT from you, until you leave for work again. (this part makes me tired just writing it) If she used to wake up once a night, expect her to wake often to feed, to get her calories in. :( 

For those moms who say, well why don't you give her solids now? Well, she doesn't show any signs of being interested in food and she doesn't have that reflex yet that pulls food back into her mouth. All in all, this is going to be okay. My baby is healthy, happy and I can't ask for more. Here are some pics to remind me what a darling she is. Even if she won't take a bottle!!!!!!!!!