Adventures in bottlefeeding!

So, Stephanie did a write up for the breastfeeding so I figured I should provide an update for the bottle side of things, as well!

I have mostly fed Jolyon at home, sometimes to give Stephanie a bit of a nap, sometimes while Stephanie is at work, and sometimes just to keep Jolyon in the habit of accepting breastmilk from another, albeit less attractive, container than the one it originally comes in.

The most exciting location has been today, though, on a 5 mile walk around the neighborhood, swinging by some shops to run errands:

This is the immediate post-feed drowsiness. (Don't worry, he was shaded for the actual eating.) Mount Rainier, shrouded in clouds, did not photograph well with the camera on my phone, but I'm still consistently taken aback by what a beautiful area we live in. I will miss being able to walk to Kerry Park but I know we will have equally lovely vistas in our new home, too!

I've also wanted to give some opinions and reviews on bottle feeding.

We've been doing it since week one. I know for some people (e.g. Laila Ali) that is a recipe for the baby becoming exclusively bottle fed, but in this case, we haven't had any problems juggling breastfeeding with the occasional bottle on some days and, now, the occasional period of bottles only while Stephanie is at work. It's a good time for me, making me feel very confident as a mom since I know I can go somewhere with Jolyon and not worry about making it back to the Boob before he wakes up or gets hungry.

Jolyon does seem to have an uncanny knack for waking up immediately after Stephanie is done pumping, but Stephanie's abundant supply seems to happily produce even more milk for a real live baby, so it hasn't been a problem yet. The advice of pumping in the morning when supply is highest, and right after a feeding, seems to be pretty good, and the Medela Freestyle's hands-free feature means Stephanie often combines pumping with breakfast for her.

Things we learned about storing breastmilk in the freezer and feeding it to our baby:

• Putting breastmilk into a glass bottle to freeze works sometimes, but isn't worth the risk of the bottle breaking if it's filled too full.
  
• Putting breastmilk into one of the bpa-free plastic Medela collection/storage bottles to freeze totally works, and the evenflo bottle tops just screw directly onto those.
  
• The super-cheap glass evenflo bottles are working great for us. Fewer fussy parts to clean than all of the fancy venting gadgets designed to keep your baby from swallowing air (e.g. Dr Brown's, Born Free, etc.). Jolyon does indeed swallow some air, but fortunately he comes with a very reliable venting feature of his own: rocking him from a seated position forward and back, with a hand supporting his front and pressing on his stomach, is a very quick, easy way to produce a massive belch (without any spitup, hey!). This is an instance where my instincts of "it's so much cheaper, maybe it's too good to be true?" were totally superfluous. In this case, the cheaper, simpler solution works just fine for us.
  
• The Lasinoh bags work pretty well WHEN THEY DO NOT LEAK, as they did today when I was thawing the last batch. Argh. At least I caught it before much of the breastmilk thawed.
  
• The best way to get around the above issue with the bags potentially getting damaged is to take out the icecube of breastmilk and put it directly into a glass bottle for thawing. The evenflo bottles are too small-necked for this, which is why it's handy that we have one Born Free bottle with a wider mouth, that allows a 3+ ounce block of frozen breastmilk to be passed through in solid state.
  
• Having the day's worth of milk thawed in the fridge is easier than unfreezing it when the baby is hungry, but with an electric kettle boiling water is generated pretty near instantly. I mix in a splash of cool water, then throw the bottle into a mug filled with hot water, and it thaws out pretty quickly.
  
• It's worth checking to see if your baby doesn't terribly mind taking milk directly from the fridge. Jolyon doesn't, at least if he's really hungry. I warm it if there's time, because it's pretty straightforward (see above protocol for thawing milk) but if he's actively fussing, then it can just be inserted directly into baby.