Transitions

Now that Linds is back at work Monday through Friday, we’re transitioning Austin to more bottle feeds. Despite my wife’s ire for pumping thrice a day behind a closed, locked door, she’s doing an awesome job maintaining the supply. We’ve got frozen milk taking up 80 percent of our freezer space. We’ve got bags and bags and bags of liquid gold! 

I’d given Austin bottles prior to her return to work—sometimes successfully (in the daylight hours) and sometimes unsuccessfully (when it’s bedtime). Fortunately for everyone, the three bottles I give him every day are at 10 a.m., 1 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Sure there’s crying, but only after the 4- or 5-ounces of milk are gone. I guess when he’s on the boob he can just keep going, but that isn’t how this bottle-feeding thing works. When it’s gone, it’s gone.

Besides, after a solid cry immediately following the bottle along with a whopper of a burp, he usually pukes (sometimes a little, sometimes seemingly the entire bottle), so I know he’s not still hungry. The thing with him is he’s not a cranky puker. Instead he’ll puke and give you a wry smile or nothing at all. To be safe, I do avoid tummy time in the 45 minutes following a meal.

But by then it’s almost time for a nap. Thursday morning/afternoon was a glimpse into what we might be transitioning to as far as naps go. His nap schedule started out like this:

·      8:45 a.m. – began a 30-minute nap

·      10:45 to 11:15 a.m. – likely fell asleep in the car during a morning excursion, sometimes for up to an hour

·      1:30 p.m. – began his long nap (which used to be in a swing but I convinced him that crib was best)

The early nap kind of transformed into a longer, almost 75-minute nap, also in the crib, thus pushing back his afternoon nap until 2 o’clock. He slept through a wicked thunderstorm with cracking thunder and heavy rain, proof that baby’s can sleep through a lot.

Yeah, this later nap cuts in on the time Nolan and I get alone, but he’s been really helpful and has been very nice to Graham lately. Except when Graham accidentally crushes one of the Lego bridges he made.

So yeah, the transition is going well, but only time will tell if I can get past that bedtime bottle nightmare.