Baby Bottle Boot Camp

So yesterday was my first day back at work. Never have 12 weeks flown by faster than these. I must say, the assignment they gave me was wonderful and my podmates were even more wonderful. Work-wise the transition couldn't have been easier. Unfortunately for Adam, his day was not so easy. Our little Lyla, who I must say is so easy going and such a happy girl, was not so yesterday. I didn't do a good job of preparing her to take her bottles. Adam had given her one about a month ago when I was gone longer than three hours. He said she took it without any issues. She is such an easy baby, I figured that she would have no problem when I went back to work. So she never got another one....before yesterday. BIG MISTAKE!

I decided, selfishly, to wake her up and feed her before I left for work. Good thing I did, because at 11am Adam was texting me to say she would not take the bottle. I called, heard her screaming in the background and my heart broke. I had been doing so well holding myself together....until that moment. He tried three different bottles, with three different nipples. The result was always the same....screaming every time the bottle came near her mouth. By 12:30pm, he was in the car headed up to the hospital for me to feed her.

Poor Adam. I felt so bad for him because he was so excited about getting to spend the whole day with her by himself. Even through my long list of instructions the night before, he was so excited. Yesterday he asked me how many more Sundays he would have to watch her ;) He is so great with her and she loves him so much, I was SO surprised she reacted to the bottle that way. In between her feedings she was perfectly fine. Go figure.

After I fed her at 12:30, I gave him some nipples and bottles from the hospital for him to try and see if she liked those better. I even gave him the freshly pumped milk from that morning. No such luck. My mom even went out and bought different bottles and nipples. Still no luck. All together I think Adam tried 5 or 6 different bottles with the same result every time. It didn't matter the position she was in or who tried (my mom, sister and dad had no luck either).

It didn't matter how hungry she got, this is one determined girl not to take the bottle. My mom informed me I would not take a bottle either...no matter how many times she tried! I am in trouble or I guess I should say whoever is taking care of her while I am at work is in trouble.

Needless to say, when I got home at 7:45, Lyla ate like she had never been fed before in her life! That stinker! So....I am doing some serious bottle boot camp this week before I go back to work on Friday. My mom has her that day. Hopefully we can get it figured out before then. Go figure...I never once thought she would have an issue going from breastfeeding to the bottle. Boy was I wrong!

Hopefully we can go from this......

....to this (Adam was by himself and I wanted a picture, talk about multitasking!)

And from this....

....to this (a happy baby and in turn a happy mom and dad)

Two Month Update!

These last two months have just flown by, and from what I hear it gets faster! Lyla was 10 weeks yesterday. I cannot believe it. I have enjoyed every minute and am really not ready to go back to work. This week we have been snowed/iced in and I still can't get enough of her. But we are ready to get out of the house!

Last week we went for her 2 month pediatrician appointment. She was so happy the whole time, until the nurse started giving her her oral medicine for her immunizations. She really wasn't happy when she got the 3 shots in her little legs. She was just looking at the nurse like "I was so happy, what did I do to you!?" I sat back and did not watch! I felt so bad for her. When it came to Lyla getting her shots, I was not the brave NICU nurse. I wanted to cry with her! But she was so brave and as soon as they were done, she stopped crying. She did not even act like anything had happened to her the rest of the day...besides sleeping 12 hours straight through that night! It was so great! She was even feeling up to eating lunch with Nicole and Tripp that afternoon.

She weighed 9 pounds exactly, which is still 10th percentile. Our petite little baby. She was 22 inches long which is 25-50th percentile.

We had such a wonderful Christmas with our families. We went to Kentucky to be with Adam's family and then we went to Hilton Head with my family. It was so nice to relax and be around family. It was so wonderful to have our first Christmas as a family with Lyla!

Lyla tired from opening all her Christmas gifts

Snow for Lyla's first Christmas, what a special memory

Almost caught the smile

Loves to be stylish and go out. 

She is such a smiley girl. She smiles all the time and, I think, very close to letting out one of those big belly laughs. She loves laying on her back and being entertained by light-up toys or just our faces. I can stick out my tongue at her and she will do the same back to me. She loves to sit up like a big girl, with our help of course, and she LOVES to stand up. This girl might be walking before she crawls. We are going to have to get one of those jumpy things that hang from the door. She loves for us to help her jump up and down. She is getting better with her head control. Even though she sleeps on her tummy, she does not seem to enjoy tummy time. She is a busy girl, always ready for the next thing!