Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Bottle Transition

Dad is now of value in regards to the feeding of Gil. The bottle was introduced last week. Gil took to it immediately. Kristen felt shunned. Was there now value in the authentic? I think for the first few minutes, she was actually upset.

But I reassured her, there is no replacing the real thing. Fakes just don't cut it. And trust me, I've seen my fair share of fake ones. I digress...

I told her to look at it from Gil's perspective, he wants the breast milk. As long as it resides behind the nipple - real or fake - he's gonna go after it. To him, it is Liquid Gold!

However, with the bottle now in play I'm now involved with feedings. So much for the care free late night feedings. Actually, that is still Kristen's role. I'm stepping up with the morning feed. This way Kristen can get an extended sleep after the late night feeding and it actually gets me up and forces me to prepare for the day.

The hidden gem that has emerged is Gil is quite playful after the morning feed. So, while Kristen sleeps Dad and son have a little bonding time. Best part of my day! He smiles in recognition of my over exaggerated faces and I get to sing ridiculously made up songs. Some G rated, others for adult ears only. But hey, to Gil if they are in an up and down pitch, I could be reading the box scores.

Back to the bottle, we're still learning on the timing of pumping to create our milk bank and when she feeds direct. Here you can see Gil's reaction when it came time to feed and Kristen had to inform him, there was 'no milk in these here boobs'.