Bottle Strike. Not two words that I was ever hoping to have to utter again. (We dealt with this when Cooper was 12 weeks old.) Unfortunately, Cooper decided on Monday he was not going to drink more than a couple ounces of milk from a bottle. He also decided he would pitch a fit any time the bottle so much as touched his little lips. Forget the fact that he's taken the bottle like a champ from everyone all summer; no, that doesn't matter. So combine a full week at daycare, energetic other kids running around to share attention with, and no milk in Cooper's belly, and you have one big, fat disaster. He wasn't sleeping more than about a half hour at a time, and he refused to drink any milk. We thought all the possibilities were exhausted, until Kris (his daycare provider) suggested she try juice and water from the bottle. The little stinker drank that without a problem! Was Cooper doing the one thing he could do to show us that he was not getting what he wanted?
Jeremy and I decided it was important to send Cooper to daycare on Friday, despite not having to work. We want him to battle this bottle strike issue, and we think he needs to get back in the routine of daycare, noise, and other kids. So Jeremy and I headed to the State Fair. Secretly, I think Jeremy wanted to get me out of Belle Plaine so I couldn't go pick Cooper up in the middle of the day :) I was having a very hard time relaxing or thinking about anything besides how much crying Cooper was doing and how terrible I felt for not spending the day with him when I was off of work. So when I saw "Kris" come up on my cell phone around noon, I winced as I answered, thinking I knew just what she was going to say.
But to my amazement, this is what I heard, "Hi Angela. I just thought I should call you to let you know that Cooper has had an absolutely perfect day so far." My mouth dropped open. "He has been content and smiley all morning--he took a good morning nap, woke up around ten and drank from the bottle without a problem. I just fed him lunch and he's already sleeping again. He's been a different kid today." I. Was. Beaming. Maybe, just maybe, we are going to get through this!!
How come no one ever told me parenting was going to be so stressful? I never realized just how much worrying I would do!! I mean, I anticipate the anxiety on Cooper's first day of school, or the day he gets his driver's license, or the day we send him off to college... but apparently I now have a sixth sense since becoming a mom; and it just hit me that it's never, ever, going to go away.
So we have the weekend to enjoy together, and Jeremy gets to experience trying to plan his day around Cooper's feeding schedule. We're going to stick to bottles during the day now, and hopefully we don't have to worry about this again. Although, I truly feel taking the bottle is less a learned behavior than a decision on Mr. Stubborn's part. But we'll control the one thing we can, and hopefully Tuesday back at daycare goes off without a hitch!
Enjoy your Labor Day weekend!
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