In preparation for my return to office to serve the 1 month notice, I have gotten my confinement nanny back to take care of Beanie, and have also started to give her bottles of expressed breast milk while I am away.
This naughty little girl has now taken a liking to bottles and is now rejecting my boobs!
This is VERY bad news to a stay-home mom who has no help in the house. I simply do not have the time to wash, sterilize, pump and then feed her via a bottle. So now, I have to train Beanie to latch all over again.
Feeding time is now a battle of wits. Instead of letting her cry it out, I have to try all sorts of tactics to "seduce" Beanie to latch again...
Plan A
Let Beanie suckle when she is in a drowsy state, which means that I have to watch Beanie like a hawk. As soon as she is waking up from her nap, I have to immediately stuff my boob into her mouth before she realizes what exactly is going on. The challenge comes when she is hungry AND sleepy, then she will be extremely fussy and will cry and scream for the bottle. That will bring me to Plan B.
Plan B
Try to latch her while both of us are lying on the bed. I've to pretend that I'm playing peek-a-boo with her, and while she is happily laughing away, I'll stuff my boob into her mouth. Unfortunately, the success rate of Plan B is only about 15%.
Plan C
When Plan B fails, then Plan C is to fish out my iPhone, play nurseries or songs and place the phone in my bra. With the phone in my bra, Beanie will at least face my boobs and I'll then try to sneak my boob into her mouth. Once again, Plan C only works like 2% so far.
Plan D
By now, Beanie is usually VERY angry, fussy, sleepy and hungry and it is now a contest of who blinks first. I will rock her vigorously until she stops crying and most probably giddy from motion sickness until she either fall asleep and then I can proceed to Plan A, or I cave in and give her a bottle of 40 ml of breast milk (she usually drinks at least 140 ml) to pacify her.
To exercise Plan A - Plan D, 4 times a day is no joke. Yes, I am seriously considering the InfantCare 2 blocks away now! Argh!
3 comments:
You mus NEVER give in and give her the bottle. If you do that you are enacting something called Random Intermittent Variable Reinforcement (RIVR). This is the most powerful reinforcement technique known. You do something (cry) and it leads to what you want sometimes. You dunno when you will get what you want but you know crying got you there at least ONCE. You will keep trying until you hit the next random reward. RIVR is what gets people addicted to gambling or golf.
Unless you want Beanie to get addicted to crying, you either give her the bottle every time OR NEVER at all.
Oh dear. Cannot stop or else your milk supply might run out. I'm sure she'll be back suckling in a few days. It took her 1 week to get used to bottle, so give her a week to adjust back.
Petunia: Ok... I must harden my heart and not give in anymore! Argh... ... ... ... ... May the force be with me.
Ting: I pump whenever a bottle is given. To ensure that my milk supply stays.
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