Bottle

This week we have been working on introducing the bottle, and things are going really well! At this point, Aidan has mastered breast-feeding: he has an excellent latch, which means that he has been getting the food that he needs and he can do that in a way that does not make Mommy uncomfortable; Mommy has figured out his baby signs telling her that Aidan is hungry; and they both have been enjoying working on developing Aidan's double chin and baby rolls!

Now that this is going well, Aidan and Daddy have started to develop the new skill-set of bottle feeding. The first couple of times, Mommy left the house while Daddy introduced Aidan to the new, weird bottle nipple, since we've heard that babies can smell their mommies 50 feet away, and (quite understandably) don't want to try a bottle if they know their mommies are right there! Aidan just mouthed the bottle nipple the first time, but the second time caught on after a little while and sucked down a mouthful of expressed breast-milk from the bottle! By the third time, Mommy had managed to express a bit more for him, and he swallowed it all down quickly as well!

We all have to keep up with this, as it is a skill that (like most skills) requires use to maintain, and we don't want Aidan to forget how to bottle feed! But we think it is a good expertise to keep up, since it will give Mommy a chance to have some time to herself to work on completing her dissertation, and will give Mommy and Daddy a chance to get out of the house together (skiiing, anyone?) when Grandma and Grandpa (or others) are around to babysit. Here's a photo of Daddy and Aidan exploring the world of bottle-feeding!