Sebastien took his first bottle today.  Apparently he will suck on anything. 

We are having issues with the evening feeds.  Maybe it is my milk.  It could be a really fast let down, or really slow. The way I put him on the breast. The time of day. His mood. My mood.  Who knows.  But he gets hungry and I get frustrated.  So much so I have thought about taking a permanent marker to his head and writing 'Relax. Take a Deep Breathe'.  To remind myself when things aren't so easy.

So tonight after another unsuccesful feed, I decided to pump and have Mihai give him a bottle. We have been preparing all week to try this, so that he would be 'trained' by the time I go back to work.  It would also be nice to be able to leave the boys alone and know that Sebastien would/could be feed.  On Saturday we went to 'Buy Buy Baby' and used the 20% off coupon Faith had given us to by bottles and a sterilizer (not sure the point of the later and why a dish washer isn't sufficient, but we didn't want to that to be the reason we are deliquent parents.)  I had put off pumping because I wasn't sure when was the best time to pump off milk and what to do with Sebastien while I was doing it.  (He has not fallen asleep on the breast for a while. I miss those days and he is only 38 days old). 

Desperation leads to so many inventions.  And my baby needed some food. So I washed and sterilized multiple bottles and several different kinds of nipples.  Sat down to pump.  Listened to the pump calling me a "nincumpoop"  (it really is what the pumping noise sounds like) for five minutes and got a grand total of 1/2 ounce for my effort.  Gently poured my milk into a bottle, being careful to get every last drop (there weren't many drops to begin with). 

Now all the books tell you that when you give your infant his first bottle, it is best if father does it and that mother be no where in sight or smell. Baby's are sensitive to these things. Not my child. No hesitation. Didn't care what kind of nipple was in there. Took that bottle straight away, polished it off in less than two minutes (barely enough time to find the camera and get a picture).  Mummy was ten feet away the whole time....

I'm glad that he can/will take a bottle.  But couldn't he have made us at least try.  Maybe reject the nipple the first time it was offered?!  On the up side, we can start giving him formula.

I've made myself redundant.  (Mihai:  "you haven't.  still someone needs to pump.")