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With the subject line in view, I'm going to talk about a decision that has caused my internal guilt monitor to spike off the charts.
Since I started work again and Keiki began going to nursery two and a half months ago, the nursery staff have been attempting to bottle-feed him twice a day. It has been a mostly unsuccessful endeavour. He vigorously rejected bottles with teats. He relented toward sippy cups for a while, though he was still not enthusiastic about taking breast milk or formula from either. When I started overnighting once a week in London (my usual full-time routine) in September, he would occasionally drink 100 mL (3.5 ounces) on the second day I was away. But he seems to have figured out that I return on the evening of the second day, and he's quite happy to go on milk strike until the warm fleshy milk-production unit comes back.
He rejected his two daily nursery bottle feeds for two weeks in a row, so this week we chose to stop asking the nursery to give them to him. The reason for the guilt? He's ten months old, and according to The Literature, he's still supposed to be getting 500 mL of milk (breast or formula) a day until he's one. I estimate, from when I'm away and have to pump to keep the boobs from 'sploding, that he gets at most 100 mL per feed from me. Even with one feed in the morning, one at bedtime and one or two at night, that's still not 500 mL, and obviously he doesn't get anywhere near that when I'm away for a day and a half.
He eats all the solid food that's offered to him, and even some that's not. Yesterday he stole his sister's half-eaten cupcake. Last week, Keiki's key worker was highly amused when they set out biscuits for the babies to decorate with icing and chocolate buttons. They turned their backs for a few seconds. When they turned round again, four babies were sitting nicely with two undecorated biscuits apiece in front of them. One baby had half a biscuit clutched in his hand and a lot of crumbs around his mouth. (You get one guess which baby that was.) This was right after lunch. So I don't think there's anything wrong with his appetite, and he certainly seems to be getting enough to eat. I really shouldn't be worried, but what with all the unconsciously absorbed socially imposed guilt surrounding being a working mother and being away from my little ones and that annoying mystically calculated 500 mL amount that we're not achieving, I have to expend a considerable amount of emotional energy talking myself into remaining calm.
He's fine. He's fine! He's a happy, healthy baby. He just prefers boob or food to anything that comes out of a bottle. I should stop stressing, y/y?
Since I started work again and Keiki began going to nursery two and a half months ago, the nursery staff have been attempting to bottle-feed him twice a day. It has been a mostly unsuccessful endeavour. He vigorously rejected bottles with teats. He relented toward sippy cups for a while, though he was still not enthusiastic about taking breast milk or formula from either. When I started overnighting once a week in London (my usual full-time routine) in September, he would occasionally drink 100 mL (3.5 ounces) on the second day I was away. But he seems to have figured out that I return on the evening of the second day, and he's quite happy to go on milk strike until the warm fleshy milk-production unit comes back.
He rejected his two daily nursery bottle feeds for two weeks in a row, so this week we chose to stop asking the nursery to give them to him. The reason for the guilt? He's ten months old, and according to The Literature, he's still supposed to be getting 500 mL of milk (breast or formula) a day until he's one. I estimate, from when I'm away and have to pump to keep the boobs from 'sploding, that he gets at most 100 mL per feed from me. Even with one feed in the morning, one at bedtime and one or two at night, that's still not 500 mL, and obviously he doesn't get anywhere near that when I'm away for a day and a half.
He eats all the solid food that's offered to him, and even some that's not. Yesterday he stole his sister's half-eaten cupcake. Last week, Keiki's key worker was highly amused when they set out biscuits for the babies to decorate with icing and chocolate buttons. They turned their backs for a few seconds. When they turned round again, four babies were sitting nicely with two undecorated biscuits apiece in front of them. One baby had half a biscuit clutched in his hand and a lot of crumbs around his mouth. (You get one guess which baby that was.) This was right after lunch. So I don't think there's anything wrong with his appetite, and he certainly seems to be getting enough to eat. I really shouldn't be worried, but what with all the unconsciously absorbed socially imposed guilt surrounding being a working mother and being away from my little ones and that annoying mystically calculated 500 mL amount that we're not achieving, I have to expend a considerable amount of emotional energy talking myself into remaining calm.
He's fine. He's fine! He's a happy, healthy baby. He just prefers boob or food to anything that comes out of a bottle. I should stop stressing, y/y?
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