Faith learnt the bottle-way!

Phew...and hurray! Faith finished 2 ounce of milk each time for 3 feeds from the bottle today!

To some mothers who are pro-breastfeeding, they might wrinkle their noses if they read this -- even I never dreamt this would be such a concern to me until I realized I actually have to 'train' Faith to drink from the bottle.

Almost all materials I have read during my pregnancy told me NOT to give her the bottle too early for fear of nipple confusion, and that she might reject the breast because it is much easier to drink from the bottle than the breast. But guess what? My little girl rejected the rubber teat flat and would rather continue to wail in hunger! My heart teared when I think of how she's gonna cope when I have to leave her at the infant care centre when I return to work in February -- and the tears 'overflowed' through my eyes when Andrew shook his head and mumbled, 'She's gonna lose weight the first week she's at the infant care...'

The usual me would just continue to worry myself sick and get depressed again. Luckily God always have a way of releasing my hands when I couldn't. One night during one of the night feeds, I sneezed and sprained my back muscle again. I had no choice but to rush to 马光TCM to seek help first thing in the morning, leaving Faith at home with mom. When mom tried feeding Faith frozen breast milk in a bottle, she licked the rubber teat and whined again. Mom persisted patiently and eventually got Faith to suck from the bottle!

The next day, I decided to try feeding her using the bottle during one of the feeds. This time she refused and wailed again. I was kinda disheartened and got worried again. Mom encouraged me to be patient and persevere. She said it takes time for babies to accept new things.

Today, I decided to try again. She licked the rubber teat slowly, her big eyes staring inquisitively at me...then she started to suck from the bottle! I was so proud of her! Towards the end of the feed, as she dozed off, she stopped sucking and went back to licking the rubber teat again. Then I realized she wasn't rejecting the rubber teat -- that is her usual reflex pulling milk from my breast with her tongue! And when she couldn't get milk out of the rubber teat by that reflex, she cried out of frustration and hunger!

Geez...I had forgotten that bottle-feeding is a new skill that she and I are both just picking up, and needs more practices to make perfect. Something so small, yet is one of those precious lessons Andrew and I picked up as new parents.