I have a love hate relationship with bottles. There are some obviously great things about bottles. For one, they are the vehicle that provides nutrients for my children - that's a real plus. But can we talk about the struggle for a minute?
When the girls were born we were given Similac Neosure formula in the hospital. It came in little sample containers of 60 ML (about 2 ounces) each. We split the container into two little plastic bottles to supplement feeds until we reached the point where Violet was eating 60 MLs with each feed and Zara was eating 45 ML with each feed. Baby stomachs are teeny tiny. The first two days of their lives they only ate about 10-15 MLs of formula after each attempted breastfeeding session, about every three hours.
I learned in the hospital that formula is only good for 24 hours once it is opened or made from powder and refrigerated and only one hour once it is put in a bottle and made contact with baby. One hour seems like a lot of time but when you have sleepy newborns that aren't accustomed to eating that can mean an hour of struggle. For the first few weeks of their lives we had to strip them down to just their diaper to get them awake enough to eat. Apparently being cold makes them eat better. If I was cold and brand new at life I don't know if I would eat faster or just be pissed that I was naked and wail.
In the hospital we weren't overly concerned about throwing away a couple milliliters if the girls didn't eat their full bottle or the formula sat out too long and had to be tossed. Once we got home and started buying our own formula the rules changed. Formula ain't cheap. And since the girls were born prematurely they were on a preemie formula with extra calories and nutrients to promote brain growth (or something?) which is almost twice as expensive as your regular run of the mill infant formula with iron. We stuck with the hospital plastic bottles for the first couple of weeks at home. The girls were already used to them and the nurses said we could use them until the nipples started to lose their flexibility. They were multi-use, but not like forever-use bottles.
After a couple weeks we had worked through most of the hospital bottles and decided it was time to integrate and eventually switch over to store-bought bottles. I had a Dr. Brown starter gift set from Alex's sister, Liz, that included 3 8-oz bottles and 2 4-oz bottles, and an Avent and two Tommee Tippee bottles from my Aunt Cathy. To get through the night and first morning feed we needed 10 bottles. The only problem with this was that I only had 8 bottles. The Dr. Brown nipples were most similar to the hospital bottles in shape. Zara has always struggled more with latch and falling asleep while eating so she needed to have the consistency of Dr. Brown bottles for every feed. Violet kind of rolled with the punches and drank what you put in front of her but she was much sloppier with the Avent and Tommee Tippee bottles. Thank goodness for bandanna bibs!
Feeds were typically around 7 PM, 11 PM, 2 AM, 5 AM and 8 AM. My mom was with us for most of the first six weeks at home. While mom and I did the 7 PM feed Alex would make bottles for the overnight feeds. Since we only had 8 bottles he would wash the 7 PM bottles before going to bed while Mom and I got the girls ready for bed. After each overnight feed we'd rinse out the bottles and then do a big soak/wash in the morning so we'd have enough to get through the day. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Mom bought us a Dr. Brown formula pitcher that has a swirling mechanism to mix the powder with water so the formula isn't shaken adding unwanted air bubbles to it. We mixed 20 ounces at a time to start. That amount slowly increased to 32 ounces at a time as they started eating more at each feed and I stopped breastfeeding. We used sharpie on the lid to write the time it was made to make sure we never gave the girls expired formula.
I was usually in bed before 9. Lots of nights mom would tell me to turn my monitor off and she would do the 11 PM feed by herself, only calling me if they were both screaming. I usually helped her with the 2 AM feed and then she would turn her monitor off and sleep until morning and I would turn our monitor on. Alex did the 5 AM feed and then got ready and went to work. When the girls started fussing around 8 I'd take them downstairs so they wouldn't wake mom up. It was easier to feed them both downstairs than in the nursery too. I'd put Violet on the lounger to my left on the couch and put Zara in my lap. It wasn't ideal to feed them at the same time when they were so new at life because they were super sloppy, but in a pinch it worked and let mom get some needed sleep. Many nights I would wake up and go in the nursery to check on them. She'd be in the nursery holding one or both of them with a sleepy grin on her face.
When mom wasn't there, Patti and Sue were. We had consistent help for the first six weeks except for two or three days her or there, usually on weekends when Alex was home so life with twins felt somewhat manageable. When I found myself alone I was overwhelmed with bottles. Mom, Patti and Sue were very good at soaking bottles immediately after day feeds and then washing them within the hour. There were always clean, dry bottles in the bottle grass in the kitchen and upstairs in the guest bath. When I found myself alone I was the sole feeder, burper, bottle washer, formula maker, diaper changer, spit up cleaner, bath giver - in a word, mom. Day two of being alone the girls I went to target and bought more bottles. We would need more once they started day care anyway.
Fast forward a couple months; we have two formula pitchers and 14 Dr. Brown bottles now. We were given the blessing to put Violet on regular infant formula at their two month check up. They started day care the following Monday at 9 weeks. I was pleased to learn that day care provides formula for babies with no allergies or special formula needs so we just have to provide clean, dry bottles for Violet. Zara, however, will be on infant formula until six months. They want the baby's head circumference to be at least 16" before they will put them on regular formula and Zara's was only 14" at 2 months. We were hopeful we'd be able to switch her to regular formula at 4 months, but no luck. The doctor said we could probably switch her off around five months but I'm a rule follower when it comes to my girls' health and I want a licensed professional to tell me it's ok to switch so we'll wait until their 6 month check up for the official word.
I went through a two week stretch around 7 weeks postpartum where I really despised bottles. The Dr. Brown bottles have several parts. It seems like no matter how "on top of it" you are, there are always dirty bottles lying around somewhere because there are always bottles soaking and you want the bottles to soak in hot water for at least 5 minutes before washing them so you can't throw newly used bottles in with soaking bottles unless you're prepared to wait longer to start the washing process and even if you are there may not be room for your newly used bottles in the bottle washing tub so you have to wait anyway and by the time you remember your waiting period is over someone has spit up or is screaming or needs a diaper change and after you deal with all of that you just collapse on the couch and close your eyes and think that maybe the bottles will be self washing when you open your eyes. But when you open your eyes the bottles are still sitting there taunting you and you know that the drops of formula left in them will start to go sour if you don't get up off your bum and wash them out. So you get up. You wash the bottles that have now soaked for an hour and put them and all their parts in the bottle drying grass. Then you dump out the soapy water because it's not hot enough anymore. You rinse out the now not-so-newly used bottles and parts and put them in the tub to soak with the water on the hottest setting and a touch of dove soap. And then you sigh because it's time to feed again, which means more dirty bottles.
The girls have always slept well (knock on all the wood), only waking to eat. By three months Violet was sleeping until 5 or 6 and Zara was going til 2 or 3 and then wanting to eat again by 5 or 6. Alex and I would feed them and ourselves somewhere around 7 and get them down by 8:30. Violet has always been more of a spit up risk so I usually stayed up with her and held her upright for 30 minutes after each feed. Alex would wash any bottles remaining from the day and make formula for the night/morning before going to bed. I'd still be in bed by 9 most nights. I would then get up when Zara woke up in the middle of the night and feed her and then go back to bed. Alex would be on duty after that, getting up to feed Violet and usually Zara too before getting ready for work. Sometimes they would both be screaming and I'd have to get up at 5 and feed one. Those days were a little rough sleep wise but I was still getting around 7 hours, which really is more sleep than most people I know get without kids.
Now at almost 5 months both of them sleep all the way through the night. Most mornings I have to wake them up to get diapers changed and get ready for day care and then I take them to day care and let day care feed them! So now we are basically doing one feed a day, at bed time, except for weekends. I wash day care's bottles (6-8 bottles) and they air dry by morning to be put together and shipped off to day care again. We soak the night feed's bottles in the guest bathroom before we go to bed so they just have to be washed out in the morning. It really is a good system and although there are still always bottles, soaking or drying in multiple locations in the house, it's manageable.
When Zara can go to regular infant formula I'm not going to know what to do with myself. We won't have to mix different formulas anymore and we won't have to provide day care with full bottles. It will be so so glorious.
When the girls were born we were given Similac Neosure formula in the hospital. It came in little sample containers of 60 ML (about 2 ounces) each. We split the container into two little plastic bottles to supplement feeds until we reached the point where Violet was eating 60 MLs with each feed and Zara was eating 45 ML with each feed. Baby stomachs are teeny tiny. The first two days of their lives they only ate about 10-15 MLs of formula after each attempted breastfeeding session, about every three hours.
I learned in the hospital that formula is only good for 24 hours once it is opened or made from powder and refrigerated and only one hour once it is put in a bottle and made contact with baby. One hour seems like a lot of time but when you have sleepy newborns that aren't accustomed to eating that can mean an hour of struggle. For the first few weeks of their lives we had to strip them down to just their diaper to get them awake enough to eat. Apparently being cold makes them eat better. If I was cold and brand new at life I don't know if I would eat faster or just be pissed that I was naked and wail.
In the hospital we weren't overly concerned about throwing away a couple milliliters if the girls didn't eat their full bottle or the formula sat out too long and had to be tossed. Once we got home and started buying our own formula the rules changed. Formula ain't cheap. And since the girls were born prematurely they were on a preemie formula with extra calories and nutrients to promote brain growth (or something?) which is almost twice as expensive as your regular run of the mill infant formula with iron. We stuck with the hospital plastic bottles for the first couple of weeks at home. The girls were already used to them and the nurses said we could use them until the nipples started to lose their flexibility. They were multi-use, but not like forever-use bottles.
After a couple weeks we had worked through most of the hospital bottles and decided it was time to integrate and eventually switch over to store-bought bottles. I had a Dr. Brown starter gift set from Alex's sister, Liz, that included 3 8-oz bottles and 2 4-oz bottles, and an Avent and two Tommee Tippee bottles from my Aunt Cathy. To get through the night and first morning feed we needed 10 bottles. The only problem with this was that I only had 8 bottles. The Dr. Brown nipples were most similar to the hospital bottles in shape. Zara has always struggled more with latch and falling asleep while eating so she needed to have the consistency of Dr. Brown bottles for every feed. Violet kind of rolled with the punches and drank what you put in front of her but she was much sloppier with the Avent and Tommee Tippee bottles. Thank goodness for bandanna bibs!
Feeds were typically around 7 PM, 11 PM, 2 AM, 5 AM and 8 AM. My mom was with us for most of the first six weeks at home. While mom and I did the 7 PM feed Alex would make bottles for the overnight feeds. Since we only had 8 bottles he would wash the 7 PM bottles before going to bed while Mom and I got the girls ready for bed. After each overnight feed we'd rinse out the bottles and then do a big soak/wash in the morning so we'd have enough to get through the day. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
Mom bought us a Dr. Brown formula pitcher that has a swirling mechanism to mix the powder with water so the formula isn't shaken adding unwanted air bubbles to it. We mixed 20 ounces at a time to start. That amount slowly increased to 32 ounces at a time as they started eating more at each feed and I stopped breastfeeding. We used sharpie on the lid to write the time it was made to make sure we never gave the girls expired formula.
I was usually in bed before 9. Lots of nights mom would tell me to turn my monitor off and she would do the 11 PM feed by herself, only calling me if they were both screaming. I usually helped her with the 2 AM feed and then she would turn her monitor off and sleep until morning and I would turn our monitor on. Alex did the 5 AM feed and then got ready and went to work. When the girls started fussing around 8 I'd take them downstairs so they wouldn't wake mom up. It was easier to feed them both downstairs than in the nursery too. I'd put Violet on the lounger to my left on the couch and put Zara in my lap. It wasn't ideal to feed them at the same time when they were so new at life because they were super sloppy, but in a pinch it worked and let mom get some needed sleep. Many nights I would wake up and go in the nursery to check on them. She'd be in the nursery holding one or both of them with a sleepy grin on her face.
When mom wasn't there, Patti and Sue were. We had consistent help for the first six weeks except for two or three days her or there, usually on weekends when Alex was home so life with twins felt somewhat manageable. When I found myself alone I was overwhelmed with bottles. Mom, Patti and Sue were very good at soaking bottles immediately after day feeds and then washing them within the hour. There were always clean, dry bottles in the bottle grass in the kitchen and upstairs in the guest bath. When I found myself alone I was the sole feeder, burper, bottle washer, formula maker, diaper changer, spit up cleaner, bath giver - in a word, mom. Day two of being alone the girls I went to target and bought more bottles. We would need more once they started day care anyway.
Fast forward a couple months; we have two formula pitchers and 14 Dr. Brown bottles now. We were given the blessing to put Violet on regular infant formula at their two month check up. They started day care the following Monday at 9 weeks. I was pleased to learn that day care provides formula for babies with no allergies or special formula needs so we just have to provide clean, dry bottles for Violet. Zara, however, will be on infant formula until six months. They want the baby's head circumference to be at least 16" before they will put them on regular formula and Zara's was only 14" at 2 months. We were hopeful we'd be able to switch her to regular formula at 4 months, but no luck. The doctor said we could probably switch her off around five months but I'm a rule follower when it comes to my girls' health and I want a licensed professional to tell me it's ok to switch so we'll wait until their 6 month check up for the official word.
I went through a two week stretch around 7 weeks postpartum where I really despised bottles. The Dr. Brown bottles have several parts. It seems like no matter how "on top of it" you are, there are always dirty bottles lying around somewhere because there are always bottles soaking and you want the bottles to soak in hot water for at least 5 minutes before washing them so you can't throw newly used bottles in with soaking bottles unless you're prepared to wait longer to start the washing process and even if you are there may not be room for your newly used bottles in the bottle washing tub so you have to wait anyway and by the time you remember your waiting period is over someone has spit up or is screaming or needs a diaper change and after you deal with all of that you just collapse on the couch and close your eyes and think that maybe the bottles will be self washing when you open your eyes. But when you open your eyes the bottles are still sitting there taunting you and you know that the drops of formula left in them will start to go sour if you don't get up off your bum and wash them out. So you get up. You wash the bottles that have now soaked for an hour and put them and all their parts in the bottle drying grass. Then you dump out the soapy water because it's not hot enough anymore. You rinse out the now not-so-newly used bottles and parts and put them in the tub to soak with the water on the hottest setting and a touch of dove soap. And then you sigh because it's time to feed again, which means more dirty bottles.
The girls have always slept well (knock on all the wood), only waking to eat. By three months Violet was sleeping until 5 or 6 and Zara was going til 2 or 3 and then wanting to eat again by 5 or 6. Alex and I would feed them and ourselves somewhere around 7 and get them down by 8:30. Violet has always been more of a spit up risk so I usually stayed up with her and held her upright for 30 minutes after each feed. Alex would wash any bottles remaining from the day and make formula for the night/morning before going to bed. I'd still be in bed by 9 most nights. I would then get up when Zara woke up in the middle of the night and feed her and then go back to bed. Alex would be on duty after that, getting up to feed Violet and usually Zara too before getting ready for work. Sometimes they would both be screaming and I'd have to get up at 5 and feed one. Those days were a little rough sleep wise but I was still getting around 7 hours, which really is more sleep than most people I know get without kids.
Now at almost 5 months both of them sleep all the way through the night. Most mornings I have to wake them up to get diapers changed and get ready for day care and then I take them to day care and let day care feed them! So now we are basically doing one feed a day, at bed time, except for weekends. I wash day care's bottles (6-8 bottles) and they air dry by morning to be put together and shipped off to day care again. We soak the night feed's bottles in the guest bathroom before we go to bed so they just have to be washed out in the morning. It really is a good system and although there are still always bottles, soaking or drying in multiple locations in the house, it's manageable.
When Zara can go to regular infant formula I'm not going to know what to do with myself. We won't have to mix different formulas anymore and we won't have to provide day care with full bottles. It will be so so glorious.
Comments
Post a Comment