I got my son to drink from a bottle this weekend for the first time.  He's
almost five months old.  He was very happy after he learned how to drink from
the bottle and fill up his belly.  I was glad to see that now I'll be able
to take him for longer than 3 hours without him going hungry.

42 responses total.

Well done!  Why'd you wait so long?  Enjoy the added freedom. 
.,

re0: i'm telling the la leche league on yew.

We didn't want to use a pump this time so it was Enfamil.  Didn't think
formula would be a good idea any sooner.  Miruna is sick with a bad cold so
I suspect I'm going to have my hands full this weekend.

cheap enfamil 'n similac at costco, holmes.  that is unless
the la leche league haint blowed it up yet.

Why did you not want to pump? I never found it *pleasant*, but certainly
useful. Of course, I had about as much milk as the average holstein...
I'm really not a fan of formula, for digestibility, for immune support, etc.

Bummer about the sick mommy- which means sick baby soon, eh? Good luck!
Take your vitamine C!

the whole immune support thing ends after the first couple of 
months from what i've heard...as far as digestability my girl 
never had a problem with similac dha

re #5
We did the pump thing with our first boy.  My wife wants to get back to work
and doesn't want to be locking her office everytime she needs to open the
reservoir pumps.  I dont think formula is going to stunt the growth of these
guys anyway.

Thanks for the CostCo tip.  I've got a membership careof VFW (that's where
I get the newsletters printed up) so David and I will make an expedition there
this weekend.  I'd only been getting tp and papertowels there until now.  We
get the diapers from the Wal*Mart..thsoe white cloud ones are cheap.

cool, and yeah..you don't have to worry about stunting their 
growth.  hell, they're already perty big.  have you thought 
about starting david on coffee and cigarettes yet?

No -ine for him yet.  I have considered getting him into the dojo though.

what style?  

I'm not at all worried about formula stunting growth- quite the opposite.
And while the large-scale immune support is mostly during the first months
of nursing, I find that a sick baby will nurse even if they won't take a
bottle, and that you can pass vitamins and some antibodies through the milk,
making the whole sickness process less severe. No, it's not cruicial, it's
just helpful.
And yeah- I can see where nosy co-workers could make pumping really
uncomfortable.

interesting, but my kid has a pretty good appetite
unless she's actually barfing.

ymmv.

great!
Happy secure little person. Hope she continues thus.

re #11
i've found pedialyte to work wonders when a kid is sick.  Well, that and a
Fever-All up the wazoo.  Victor is still going to breastfeed for the interim
but we're going to give him a bottle every now and then too.

I have to admit if. If I had a kid, I would breastfeed but for mostly 
pretty selfish reasons. It seems easier. Frankly, I am just too lazy to 
go to the store to buy the formula and the bottles and then a person 
has to *wash* the bottles, etc etc. I generally take the path of least 
resistance no matter what it is. But, I dont have kids anyways so it 
hardly matters.

Breastfeeding is only handy if you're housebound and uninhibited.  Most women
are not open to the idea of plomping their boob out in public when feeding
time rolls around.  That even goes for at home with visitors.  

I'm with Lynne. And dear knows, I was anything but housebound- traveling from
Vermont to New York state, to Michigan, to Ontario, and elsewhere. And I'm
somewhat uninhibited, but a blanket serves as a modesty cover when necessary.
Although, I was more than willing to speak up if anyone was rude; "My kid's
hungry. What's on *your* mind?" <eg>
I don't know, the act of giving birth did a lot for trashing my modesty. For
that matter, so did sharing my body for 9 months. 
But babies aren't long on discression- happy wet slurping sounds, and a
tendency to lift up the covers to look around while nursing. My (not) favorite
was having a strongly sucking baby get distracted and let go suddenly- leaving
me painting the opposite wall!  Hey, it's an adventure in every bite! 
Better than being stiff and fussy, though.

Let me rephrase #16: "Most LADIES are not open to the idea of plomping their
boob out in public when feeding time rolls around." ;)

With forethought and a suitable style of dress (including something like a
receiving blanket, or burping-cloth), I found that nursing my babies could
be done discreetly.  When only mom and baby can see it, is it "in public"?

Most LADIES have the strength, poise and determination, not to let prurient
or narrow-minded busy bodies keep them from giving their children the best
care possible. "Real Men" support them in that effort. Real men also complain
if there is not a clean diaper changing station in the men's room at a
gas station, resteraunt or grocery store. 

isn't LADIE a derogatory term or something?

Gas stations, restaurants, and grocery store bathrooms are full of germs. 
I certainly wouldn't take a baby to a gas station or grocery store knowing
that those HVAC systems are full of bacteria.  That's usually where you hear
about Legionairres Disease outbreaks.  Anyways, the point is, my wife does
not care to breastfeed anywhere but in the comfort of privacy.  And it's not
likely going to be much longer before Victor is chugging Enfamil from a bottle
so mama can stop the dairyfarm madness.  We've already got Victor eating
cereal now.

I'm also very happy to announce that David turned 2 yr 5 mo yesterday and not
only counted to 10 in several languages on his own but also went pee while
sitting on the adult toilet (using his potty seat).

awesome...he was doing a pretty good job counting 
last week at dinner.  you all are good parents.

Thanks Roy!  This weekend, we've got our pals from the North coming to visit.
I'm going to see about recruiting them to help put up the swingset.  Then we
can unleash the ninjas in the backyard.

resp:16 shit, I have been looking for an excuse to plonk my ta-ta's out
in public for *years*  If I were to have a baby, the hard part for me
would be working. I wouldnt want to do the stay-at-home mom thing
really, but it is very hard for working women to breast feed because
then you have pump. ick. But, it hardly matters. I dont have any real
children and luckily my pretend children just eat dog food. 

That's okay, I eat dog food, too!

re: bacteria; so, bring wet-wipes and/or a changing pad. Thing is, the kid
will inevitably blow through diaper, his clothes and your clothes, at the
most inconvenient moment, far far away from home. Leaving you with the choice
of changing him at 20 degrees in the back of your station wagon or on the
cramped back seat of your Dodge Neon, or else using the dubious facilities
of the nearest gas station or rest area. At least, if there is a public
changing station, you're not on the freezing damp floor. And often, there are
disposable pads and/or wipes attached to the changing station. You make do
with what's available.
I've never heard of anyone getting legionaire's disease from a bathroom- I
gather that it tends to break out in closed air systems, but that's a detail.

Happyboy, I gather that "lady" was being used in a sarcastic way in that
context. I've never seen it as derogatory, just a bit old fashioned. sadly,
very few kids today aspire to be- or are encouraged to be- ladies and
gentlemen. I'm quite convinced that girls *can* be both strong-willed
competitors, *and* have polite manners. I also believe (without much proof
yet, sadly) that boys can "be boys" and still learn to come down stairs
without sounding like a herd of buffalo, to go through a door without slamming
the entire wall, and to contain their body noises at the dinner table...OK,
maybe I'm an optimist...<g>

I doubt that you'll be able to silence the buffalo on the stairs (they're
elephants at our house), but the rest is not too much to expect eventually.

Bottle fed Victor this weekend and gave him cereal.  He's quite the smiley
baby.

cool, did he enjoy the cereal?

Grace! Good to hear from you. Your kids are hardly "kids" anymore!

Tod- what a great feeling! Happy (dirty) fully cuddly baby!

Thanks!
Here's where I spent my weekend:
http://www.megachump.com/kids1.jpg

Awww, looks comfy.
Tell me about little miss "rules the roost"- she stands out from the crowd,
and looks like she knows it. 
And the baby sure does look cuddly!

re #33
Emily is the daughter of my cousins in Vancouver.  She is 5 years old.
I bought her a couple coloring books and crayons at the dollar store Friday
night before she arrived.  The crayons were a box of 64 with a sharpener on
the back and cartoon of girls on the front.  Not a bad score for $3 total.
She and my son David had a blast coloring and running around the house.  We
also took them to the park down on the lake where they played on the slides
and swings.  The weather was fantastic.  My baby boy Victor spent most of his
time in the bouncy chair or in the swing at home.  
Both Emily and David are bilingual so it is interesting to see them interact
with adults and instinctively pick and choose which language to speak in.

did the kids get some grub at ivar's or was it a different park?

Its the park with the Ivar's but I cooked all the meals at home this weekend.

                

        *gLaREs*

Well, you can look at it a few different ways.  I can either be cooking or
I can be socializing.   I find cooking therapeutic because I get a whole bunch
of different things going on at once and get to see an end result.

sometimes socializing is less fun than digging ditches.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss