bit of both

I always wanted to be one of those Mums who could breast and bottle feed. With Ez there was no convincing him milk came from anywhere other than a breast despite trying everything. From five weeks to eight months we persevered, and then suddenly he picked his mates partially drunk bottle off the table and began glugging. Typical.
With Seth I aimed for things to be different. He did start out bottle fed as I was otherwise engaged in surgery and sedation and whatnot. Similarly we persevered with at least one bottle a day which became more and more of a struggle, until we gave up completely for a few weeks.
Breastfeeding is great- good for baby, convenient for mum. However, it is a tie when you fancy a few beers, or (in our case) both kids become ill and are up day and night crying and demanding liquid. Its exhausting feeding every hour for days on end with no one to assist, and then running around keeping a toddler engaged during the day.
I decided to take a leap this weekend and reintroduce the bottle to our lives- if possible. I'd read that if you offer only a bottle for two days, baby will learn to latch and suckle from a bottle. A baby will never forget how to feed in his preferred method, and can learn to do both.
So, day one was yesterday. I expressed 24oz, Seth drank 14oz. The first feed was hellish and he sobbed for 40 minutes before falling asleep and suckling 2 ounces in his sleep. Gradually as the day progressed, he was consuming slightly more but each feed was taking an hour or more and he was sobbing most of the time. I don't know how I carried on as my heart was breaking- but I did. Thankfully he only woke twice in the night and I hoped for a better day today. Sadly the morning feed was just as bad as the first, and as I went off to buy more bottles, I was feeling dejected.
Whilst in Boots I discovered a new Tommee Tippee product called Closer to Nature. They are feeding bottles with wide extra wide silicon teats designed to replicate the breast surface, the theory being that baby can latch with a wide mouth. The silicon becomes stretchy when filled with milk mimicking a nipple, and the bottles themselves are short, wide and stout so that you can turn baby to into your body and still wedge the bottle in to feed.
Seth took to it immediately. He has guzzled two feeds happily. I would enthuse more about the bottles but I am too tired. For anyone who is planning to breast and bottle feed- buy them.
My plan is to give him his 7pm and 11pm feed from a bottle and gradually wean him off the breast over the coming months. If I'm successful, I'll see you down the pub for a fair few bevvies.