"Bottle" Royale

A couple of weeks ago, Will stopped taking a bottle. Jack did something similar at the same age (about 7 weeks old). We were stunned, shocked and aghast. Why, after taking a bottle for 5 weeks, would he suddenly refuse? Little did we know that kids routinely refuse to take bottles at about that age because they all of a sudden become "active participants" in the eating process. The ironic thing is that all the books and the breastfeeding gurus warn you not to give your kid a bottle or a pacifier too soon lest they reject breastfeeding altogether in favor of a bottle. Ha. I have NEVER known a kid who wouldn't breastfeed but I know a hell of a lot of kids who wouldn't take a bottle. So I bought every bottle (from the cheapie ones to the 20 dollar ones that look like a real boob) and every nipple (latex, silicone, regular, orthodontic) and tried them all in combination with each other. Here are just three of my big bottle bags (these are not normal ziplocs mind you but ginormous ones meant for sweaters or body parts).


We tried to feed him in the swing, in the baby bjorn, standing on the front porch, jumping up and down, upside down in the siwng...you name it, we did it. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn't a huge deal because Jack slept 12 hours (from 7 until 7) at about 3 months. So we'd just wait to go out until later. But it posed problems for late afternoon activities and it certainly meant we couldn't go away until he was a year old.

So when Master Will exhibited the same behavior, I panicked. We tried to give him bottles every day for a week to make sure it wasn't a fluke. When we determined it wasn't, Billy and I caucused and decided that before things completely spiraled out of control, we would make one last ditch effort to avoid a permanent bottle strike. We figured we'd either break his will (no pun intended) or die trying so to speak.

I'm sorry to say we went down in flames. We've been bested by a 2 month old. It surely won't be the last time...