From boob to bottle to bowl...a natural progression.

Boobs to bottles to bowls...a natural progression. Feeding Billy has become quite a milestone. From day one, Billy was breastfed. Sadly, there were a few hours during day 3 when the Dr. recommended formula because he was jaundice. Billy's level was a 19.8 and in reference, a baby leveling in at a 20 is forced to be checked back into the hospital to be under the "blue" light for 24 hours. Thankfully, our Dr sent us home with our own "billy" blue blanket and I had to feed him formula to flush out the liver for 24 hours. (They were afraid I wasn't producing enough milk by day 3 to flush him out effectively.) Within that time, Billy went from a 19.8 to a 14 and was well on his way to forgetting his yellow-self. After that visit, we went right back to the boob and Billy was exclusively breastfed through month 4.

Breastfeeding seemed to come naturally to my body, maybe too naturally. Around 3-4 weeks my son had already gained 4lbs weighing in at over 12lbs in that short of a time. Turns out, after a breastfeeding consultation, I was producing enough milk for TRIPLETS and Billy (my very hungry son, apparently) was consuming most of it! With a few strategies, we finally got the milk production under control, but not without a case of mastitis and many hours of engorgement. All in a day's work of a mommy, I guess.

Until about 2 months, Billy was eating every 2 hours, which seemed to be quite often and gave me very little rest outside of the house, but I had always heard "breastfed babies cannot over eat...", so I kept feeding him and he kept eating. Finally at my 2 month appointment, our pediatrician recommended I might want to try spacing it out to every 3-4 hours and give myself a little break and by the looks of Billy, 15lbs at this point, he clearly wasn't starving. (Aren't chubby babies so stinkin' cute though!) From that appointment on, I spaced him out a little more and even started getting a bit more sleep at night because he would stay asleep longer without waking up "hungry".

Most of Billy's feedings were breastfed, but I did start pumping around a month or so to store milk for my time out of the house and to allow daddy to enjoy some of the feedings with a bottle. Sometimes I feel sorry for the dads, as mom gets all the bonding time with baby, especially in those first 3 months! I was talking to a dad recently and he mentioned from week 1, he insisted that at least 1 feeding a day was from daddy (pumped breast milk in a bottle), so that he had his special time with his baby. With baby #2 for us, I think that is a great idea and it will give my husband more time with his baby early on.

At four months I knew it was time to start feeding Billy cereal and he was definitely ready weighing in at 18.5lbs and 26in long! I wanted to wait until the Dr actually gave us the go-ahead and quite honestly, I didn't know if I was ready to stop breastfeeding him every meal because that meant my baby bug was growing up. At the Drs appointment though our pediatrician recommended rice or oatmeal cereal and told me, "Lindsey, you may not be ready for this next step, but I think Billy is..." and so I agreed.

After hearing stories about babies eating from a spoon for the first time, I knew that Billy would either do a great job on day one because he truly was ready or he may have no clue what he was doing and then we might need to wait a few more days till he was ready. (Secretly, I knew he was ready because he had been staring mommy and daddy down at dinner time for the past month, watching our every move, our every bite, every chew, and every swallow.) That first feeding though, it was clear in a matter of 2 seconds that Billy was ready to eat from a spoon and probably had been ready to eat from a spoon for a few weeks! He opened his mouth, licked his lips, and I think I even heard a few sighs of pleasure with each bite! By feeding number 2, my son was even grabbing my hand and feeding himself and when I was not fast enough he would lean forward and bite the spoon before I had it ready with food on it. Nope, my kid wasn't ready for food at all! HA! We fed him rice cereal for a few weeks and now have started him on oatmeal, which I think he loves even more! Feeding time has become a real treat for him and it  almost always results in bath time afterward which perhaps he loves even more! (And I still breastfeed him every other feeding and at night, so my baby hasn't totally grown up yet...thank goodness!)

Next step is baby food: veggies and fruit, (about 6 months) and I am definitely not ready for that, but I know without a doubt, Billy will be ready and I will just need to follow suit! So much changes from boob to bottle to bowl and the next thing you know it, you have a crawling, walking, baby with a mouth full of teeth!