Its the worst thing you could do to her in her little baby existence..nothing else makes her as mad and unsettled as the feeling of an artificial nipple in her mouth. She puts other things in her mouth..her fingers, my fingers, stuffed birds, burp cloths and more but when you attempt to feed her from a bottle the battle begins! She screams, cries, throws her head back and thrusts her feet forward as if she's trying to escape from the arms of who ever is feeding her. She won't stand for it! Its really making a bit of a problem for me because, I cannot be away from her for more than a couple of hours. We have been trying her at the bottle for several months actually, and have tried many bottles/nipples to no avail. I initially wanted to use glass bottles, so I bought four LifeFactory bottles before she came and just assumed when it was time, she'd take it..I was wrong. Its got a cool looking sillicone sleeve but, the nipple was hard and seemed to be choking her because its long so I went in search of a different bottle. We tried the bottles which her sister Arielle willingly took, the Playtex premium nurser and although it solved the choking problem and has a softer nipple shaped more like a natural nipple, she didn't like this one either. I then decided to try the bottle a few moms suggested was closest to natural, the Tommee Tippee and was pretty excited about it but she still would not latch on. My mother bought the NUK bottle which has a sculpted asymmetrical nipple and tried it on her and we began to make progess. She was willing to play with it and wasn't so mad during the feeding even though she still didn't actually latch on. We have since continued to feed her daily from that bottle but it become too stressful for the husband..coming home from work and having to be the bad guy (they advise having someone else feed her..not mommy) and deal with an extremely annoyed baby after missing her all day.
So a few days ago I had to go to a meeting and left at 10am and wouldn't return until 8pm, my husband took the day off to be on baby duty because we couldn't bear to leave her with anyone especially for the first time. He was nervous, I was nervous but we had to do it. I fed her before I left ( about 8:30am) and didn't come home until 7:45pm and she only took 1/4 of an ounce of milk from the bottle ( daddy had to squirt it in her mouth)..ALL DAY!
So now I ask, any suggestions people?..innovative ideas needed because I have tried it all. I will be returning to work in a few weeks and she will be with a nanny from 8:30 to 6:30 so she has to take the bottle, right? If you read this blog and have never commented, today is the day to start please because I am terrified to leave her if she plans on starving herself and clearly she does! Don't let those cheeks fool you!