Hit the bottle

She enjoys her bouncer. It's one of her favourite things, but after 10 to 15 minutes she starts to pout and cry. That's her way of telling us that she's ready to be picked up 😄

"Dadda, take me for a walk around the kitchen and living room again", she says.

Arabella had a fantastic day. She finished 4 entire bottles today!

She broke her own record, and mom and dad were very excited for her. It was almost 5 bottles, actually. She happened to leave 20mL after her 9pm feed because she was just too tired.

Yup, kind of like that 😂

We celebrate every finished bottle in this household, and we've been doing a lot more celebrating lately. Yesterday dad enjoyed a cold beer during the hot and humid afternoon, and we joked that Bella and dad must each drink until their bottles are finished. 

I'll cheers to that!

Switching Arabella over to the regular-flow nipple seems to have payed off. Now she can conquer a bottle without getting too tired. The flow is a little quick for her sometimes, but on the bright side she doesn't get too bored. If she's overwhelmed by the flow, we'll see her start to slow down and pace herself. Usually...

Today she finished her 3pm bottle in under 15 minutes and Kiera and I looked at each other in disbelief. "Did that really just happen?" We also wondered how her stomach would handle the volume in such a short time. In the NICU we had her feeds running for over an hour sometimes because her reflux was so bad. 

But Belle doesn't seem phased anymore. 

She's been tolerating her feeds exceptionally well at home. Maybe we're not too far from removing that feeding tube, after all! 

We know that Belle can take a bottle now, so hopefully we can transition her exclusively to the bottle in the near future. Maybe it means waiting for her hunger cues, and not sticking to a set feeding schedule like we do right now. As long as her total fluid intake is the same, we should be okay. 

We'll see our pediatrician this week, so we'll make sure to have a chat about this.

Way to hit the bottle Arabella! She's totally taken the bottle-feeding dilemma and turned it on its head!