Holy Nipples {Part Two}

All of my excitement from the initial feeding with the 3+ month nipples quickly faded at the conclusion of his "middle-of-the-night" feeding into early Friday morning. At around 3:30am, we sat in his rocking chair in the nursery and he was eating away. He ate so quickly that I didn't even get a chance to stop him for a burp in the middle - I guess in my sleepiness I didn't notice how fast he was chugging the bottle until I could hear him only gulping air {meaning the bottle was empty}. I prepare to lift him up for a burp but before I could he coughed and sent the entire contents of said bottle from his mouth all over his PJs, up his nose, in his ear, on me and all over the beautifully white chair in his room. Epic.Fail.

I make sure to get a burp out of him after this occurs {all the while inhaling the yucky formula smell} and then bring him over to the changing table. He had soaked through to his onesie and diaper so I stripped him down, wiped him off {body, inside his nose and all} and then diapered and dressed him in clean PJs. I quickly wiped down what I could of the chair {you will be happy to note that as of this morning there is no stain} and then brought little man back into our room for bed. I then changed my clothes and wiped off all of the formula I could and settled back in for an hour or so more of sleep.

Since then I am all eyes when feeding him. I'm burping him at least twice during feedings and once at the end and {knock on wood} we haven't had any issues since. Hopefully that will remain the case now that I feel we've somewhat mastered the new nipples...

Holy Nipples (Not Those Nipples....)

Duh....I wish there were a step-by-step handbook on how to effectively and successfully raise a child. I know there are many books {and I've read plenty!} and I get every weekly email from every baby website imaginable telling me what to expect "this week" with my baby. So how in the world did I not know I should change out the nipples on little man's bottles at certain stages in his life to help him eat better/differently/more quickly?

It's always been {really...always? he's only been here for three months} a running joke with the hubby and I just how sloooow little man eats. I can remember early on when he was waking up every three hours to eat so that if he woke up at 1am we fed him until 1:45am-2am and then he would sleep {hopefully} two more hours until getting up again. I mean, that was the story my entire maternity leave. Since then he continued to be a very slow eater and we could always count on it taking a half hour {minimum} for him to get through his bottle.

Today when I was picking him up from day care, he was in the middle of a bottle with Ms. Ida and she commented on how slow he eats. I agreed and told her he's always been a slow eater {see, that was the common response we've always given}. She asked me if I have changed out his bottle nipples. "Um, no" I told her.

"Well you know they have different nipples for different ages, don't you?" she responded.

Hmmm, I vaguely remember one of the grandmas mentioning something about that...but for some reason it must've drifted into the back of my mind. "Um, no. But now I do."

"You'd better go out and buy some of the three month nipples, he will eat much better for you," she said.

And what did I do as soon as I packed up the little guy into his car seat? I promptly drove us to the nearest grocery store and stocked up on ten of the 3+ month nipples. As soon as I got home, I set my little kitchen buddy up in his pompesan chair and washed all of the nipples I had just purchased and then filled all new bottles with said nipples.

And what was the result you ask? When I fed little man before his bedtime, he scarfed down his entire bottle in basically 7 minutes flat. Seriously.... So I ask myself, how did I not know that I should change out the nipples on his bottle at different stages in his life. I guess that's something I must've skipped over in all of my "what you should know about baby" emails.