Feeding Time

Rayne and I had a very hard time with breastfeeding. She'd had a bottle by the time we left the hospital and there were times, sometimes even a whole day, when I just couldn't get her to eat with me and she had to have a bottle. In some ways it was nice, especially when we were out or in the car, we could give her a bottle or Jeff could feed her.

With Caius, I've felt determined to breastfeed. Perhaps I feel like I'm "making up" for what I wasn't able to do with Rayne, like I'm fixing my mistake or something. Perhaps it's an intuition that this is important for him.

Jeff has often encouraged me to give Caius a bottle too. I'm not up for pumping, so this would mean feeding him formula and I just haven't been able to get past a gut feeling of "no." I'd like to think that Jeff's motive is purely out of wanting to help or making things easier for me but I think a lot of it was that he wanted to go to a movie and we couldn't leave Caius with anyone, especially at the beginning, for any length of time if they couldn't feed him.

But finally we've made it to a milestone. Caius recently started eating baby food.
This is a picture of Caius' very first bite of baby cereal. A picture's worth a thousand words! Haha. Actually, I think he likes eating quite a bit and is doing well. He has had rice, oatmeal, prunes, squash, green beans, sweet potatoes, pears and bananas.

Caius eating "real food" has eased Jeff's concern a bit. He now knows someone else could take care of Caius if we wanted or needed them to. I too have relaxed a bit and finally let Daddy feed him. This is what happened:
I think I'll keep following my intuitions!