A Great Weekend

Ridley and I started our weekend off by heading over to Grammie's house on Saturday (my mom's). Ridley showed Grammie that she loves to exercise her voice. She croaks out "Ayyyyy" again and again for minutes on end. She loves finding her voice!
Then we headed to Rose and Josh's baby shower where Ridley got PLENTY of attention. Everyone wanted to hold her and play with her and she really loved seeing all the new faces. She loves to see new faces and she will smile really big and start bopping around in spastic excited movements. She even met another baby there (my friend Ashley's little boy) while I got to catch up a little with friends and eat some good food. And it's exciting to think that in just a couple of months Ridley will have another baby friend. She already has so many!
That night, Phil came home! He has been gone to San Jose, CA for the last couple of weeks for work. His flight came in around 9:30pm when Ridley had already gone down for the night. But she got to see her dad around 3:00am when she woke up for a night nursing. He was excited to see her, but we held back on interacting with her until the next morning. I wanted her to go back to sleep ASAP! Those "sleeping through the night" nights are starting to become a distant memory since I went back to work.
Sunday morning Ridley showed her dad her voice. "Ayyyyy. Ayy. Ayyyyyyyy!" And while he changed her diaper, she showed him that she had found her feet and held on to them. This made it a little more difficult for Phil to change her diaper, but he was nonetheless very impressed with her new accomplishment.
That same morning, Ridley rolled over all on her own! And this time she wasn't propped up on a pillow. She was flat on the floor on her tummy. She arched her back and rolled right over to her back. Her little eyes got big and she looked at me as if asking, "Is this okay? I think I just did that..." Of course I made a big deal about it. "What a strong girl! You go, Ridley!" She didn't do it again all day, but I'm sure she'll be the master of the roll over before I know it.
And then Phil, Ridley and I went to Grandma's birthday dinner (Phil's mom). We had a good time and it was interesting to look back on what we did this time last year for Wendy's birthday...practically the same thing with one big exception. It was a year ago when we went to the same restaurant, sat at the same table and announced our pregnancy to Wendy and the rest of Phil's side of the family. I even posted the video on this blog! And this year we returned to the same restaurant and the same table this time with little Ridley joining us.

Just When I'd Given Up...

I told Elena that even though I was done trying to get Ridley to take the bottle, I thought we should just offer it to her once a day anyway. I didn't expect her to take it, but it wouldn't hurt to offer it. Well, when I picked Ridley up on Friday evening after work, Elena gave me some great news. Ridley drank 3.5oz out of the bottle with no fuss! Miracle! Just when I'd made peace with Ridley not taking the bottle, she went for it (there's a life lesson in there somewhere).

This is Ridley in the Bumbo after taking the 3.5 ounces!

I didn't want to loose any momentum over the weekend, so I decided that I was going to offer her a bottle once on Saturday and once on Sunday. I didn't think she'd take it from me at all since she knows I'm the one that breastfeeds her, but I knew I had to try. I'm happy to say I was very wrong! She took right to the bottle when I offered it! She drank 2.5oz because that's all I had put in the bottle, but she drank it all and was ready for more. I was floored. I still am.
On Sunday, we were over at a friend's house when I offered her a bottle and again she took right to it. My friend Lisa said that if she hadn't known we were having difficulty with getting her to take it, she would never had known. Ridley didn't take the entire bottle (this time I'd put 4oz in it), but she drank almost 3oz before she decided she'd had enough.
I don't know what the difference was in the end. I have a friend whose baby will sometimes take the bottle and sometimes won't. So, I don't want to say that this is a done deal, but it is definitely a huge progressive step.

Baby Playing

Elena has been sending me pictures of Ridley during the day while I'm at work. It's been amazing to be able to see what she's up to while I'm not with her! Sometimes I really love technology.

Here is today's picture:



This morning on our ride to Elena's I heard the clicking' of Ridley's car seat toys! These toys are a little bug and a little bird that hang down from the car seat handle. Ridley has been aware of them for a while now and has grabbed a hold of them, but she hasn't had the strength until this morning to actually pull them towards her on their strings (the "clicking" sound). What a strong girl!

*UPDATE: Here's a video of Ridley in action. This was recorded after Ridley finally took a bottle for us and while Phil was still out of town for work.

The End of the Bottle Battles

After weeks and weeks of trying to get Ridley to take the bottle, I have decided to stop trying. Yes, you read that right. I am raising the white surrender flag. Cease fire. Cease fire.
Yesterday was final battle day. It was the day that the sitter and I decided I was not going to come and nurse Ridley for lunch, and I was not going to come nurse her in the afternoon. She was going to go without nursing until she gave in to the bottle. We were going to force her into submission with a full day of no nursing. And I did it. I did not see Ridley until I got off work (the longest I've ever been away from her to date).
But Ridley went the 11 hours without milk. 11 hours! From 8am until I could feed her at 7pm. She did not take the bottle. By the end of the day, she was so tired and wore out from fighting it that she just let the bottle stay in her mouth without taking any of it down. She sat there with the nipple in her mouth, looking straight ahead like a broken down child. But she wasn't going to drink a drop. She just wasn't going to cry about it anymore.
I went home and called a nurse. I sat on the phone with her (while nursing!) for over a half hour going through every possible suggestion and recommendation. "Been there, done that," was my response to every single suggestion.
I told her how everyone has told me that if Ridley gets hungry enough, she would eventually eat. She told me that wasn't necessarily true. There have been moms that have taken their babies to the ER because of dehydration. I asked her what was the longest a baby could go without risk of dehydration. She told me they don't recommend a baby go any longer than 6-8 hours (we did 11!). I said I thought that I wasn't holding out long enough, that maybe I should withhold the breast from her at night too. What did she think? She said "starvation to submission" is never a good idea, and that's what others in the medical profession would say. She could develop negative connotations with eating that could be long term. I don't want Ridley to develop negative connotations with eating. Just imagine her having a hard time accepting solid foods due to a negative association! And everyone who tries to get Ridley to take the bottle say they feel like they are torturing her. My sitter said "I feel like I"m water boarding her!"
This is 100% what my intuition was telling me, that starving Ridley just wasn't the answer and just hearing it confirmed was enough for me to feel validated. I wish I hadn't needed someone to back me up, but so many people have told me "Oh, she's not going to remember this! She HAS to take the bottle. You're the mother." But my intuition was telling me, "If it were a kid throwing a tantrum about not eating their broccoli, okay, I see the point in digging my feet in the sand. But this is a little baby! She's only old enough to know that she wants me to nurse her and that's it. She's not old enough to reason, she's not old enough to "spoil" and she's not old enough to go long periods without food or liquid!" Ridley may be in the 95 percentile of weight, but going without milk isn't just about gaining weight, it's about staying hydrated as well.
One other thing that some people (including myself) were saying was that by me nursing Ridley at lunch, I was undermining our efforts with the bottle. But I don't feel that way anymore. For one, we tried 11 hours of holding out and that's long enough for me (how much longer was I supposed to hold out before Ridley ended up in the ER?!). But two, the nurse told me that the suggestion is to wait a good 10-15 minutes between attempting the bottle and nursing to avoid that association (the association that "hey, if I hold out Mom will come nurse me eventually). We waited a lot longer than 15 minutes, so I don't think she was making that association. She is just stubborn! I think if I wasn't fortunate enough to be able to breastfeed, we would be in the ER with her! If there was some sort of reason/emergency where I wasn't able to breastfeed, I think we'd be looking at a few days of hell and starvation and probably a trip to the hospital. But even if there wasn't a trip to the hospital, starving her into submission would not be ideal. I'd do it if I had to in that situation, but I'm luckily not in that situation. I'm not risking her well being for my convenience of her taking a bottle.
So, I say enough. I can go home and nurse her at lunch and in the afternoon, and that's just what I'm going to do! I'm done stressing over it and worrying that I'm not being a good mom because I can't get her on the bottle. I'm done worrying about not trying everything I can. I feel that I HAVE tried everything at this point and I need to recognize when I've been beaten.
Straight from the tap! The bottle has lost. Long live the breast. So ends the Bottle Battles of '10/'11.

A Tisket A Tasket

I missed her first reaction to the Sing A Ma Jig, which was a huge smile, but here's her second viewing of the toy:

Bath Time

Ridley LOVES to kick in the bathtub. This is definitely one of her milder bath times, but also one with a funny ending...

Milk Drunk Memories

I just recently went through the videos that we've been taking of Ridley on the iFlip. I came across this one and realised that there's no wonder she won't take a bottle! Look how satisfied she is with it straight from the tap! (this video is Ridley at 5 days old)