bottle baby

for two days this week, i had to leave baby b with someone.  while it's not the first time we've left her, it is the first time for over 3-4 hours.  which means, dun! dun! dun!, i had to leave her with a bottle.

b drank from a bottle a couple of times early on in her life.  you moms know those first days.  the painful painful days when that milk floods in...  i swear engorgement is worse than having a baby.  it is for me, that is for sure.  my mom wisely convinced me that pumping and giving b a bottle once or twice would lessen the pressure - and she was right.  oh those were a horrible four days!

so, it's been months since b had a bottle and i wasn't sure how she would do while great-grandma was watching her.  i hoped that if b got hungry enough, any aversions she had to a bottle would dissolve.  and, thankfully, that's what happened.  we haven't really left her with a babysitter much because a) she's so easy to take along and b) i didn't know how she'd do with the bottle.  thankfully, for her and for grandma, she did fine.

my only other experience with giving a nursing baby a bottle (k) did not end well... for me.  k was a breast and bottle fed baby.  i was working part-time for the first 4-5 months of her life so weston gave her a bottle everyday.  once we left her for a couple of days for our anniversary, however, she only had eyes for her bottle and nursing was quickly on its way out.  i'll be honest, that's a bit of the reason why baby b hasn't had much exposure to the bottle yet.

i was talking to my sister in law about this the other day.  do any of you moms have advice or experiences to share on the subject?  i'm guessing the answer is that it depends on the individual baby, but what has worked to nurse your baby and give them the occasional bottle without ruining your routine?