Operation Formula: Attempts 1 & 2

Below, you'll see a picture of me shaking my head, saying, "Nope, Mr. Smartypants isn't fooled one bit." The baby in the picture is very disinterested in his bottle.

Now that he's getting up a couple of hours earlier each morning than he was when Stephen was staying home with him, Asher is requesting an extra bottle each day. And where does this child think this extra bottle should come from? My boobs, of course. My boobs, on the other hand, are striking this proposal. "We are already producing at maximum capacity," they complain. I can't blame them. They are, after all, only boobs, not miracle workers. (Though that would be pretty cool.)

So, I begin freaking out as I always do. How the HELL am I supposed to feed this boy?! I'm down to three bottles of frozen milk. THAT'S IT. For those of you who don't know, and I am kicking myself so hard for not having a picture, before I went back to work I had three shelves in the freezer full of frozen milk. How am I supposed to feel secure with only three frozen bottles on hand as backup? I've read that the main way to increase the milk supply is to increase the demand - hence, for me, pump more frequently. However, working full-time away from home really prohibits me from doing this - after all, I'm already taking an extra half hour in addition to my regular lunch hour so I can come home and pump mid-day.

Finally, it dawns on me - it's not going to KILL him to have a bottle of formula a day. He'll still be getting the same amount of milk as before, I'd just be adding to that with formula. And formula has all those vitamins and minerals in it. It'll be good for him and will widen his palate. So, I breathe a sigh of relief and allow myself this tiny break from my usual perfectionist ways by making the decision that it's time to incorporate a little formula into his diet.

I'd heard of instances in which breastfed babies don't like the taste of formula (yeah, I'm talking about you, Mr. Rowan), but I've also heard of instances in which they take to it effortlessly (Miss Emerson, your mommy is so lucky to have such a laid back baby!). Knowing that Asher is a relatively easygoing baby, I was hoping he'd take the formula without a second thought.

WRONG.

Attempt #1: Last night we tried our first formula bottle. For the first couple of sucks, he was fine. Then he kind of slowed a bit, and started glancing up at me like, this just isn't right. By maybe an ounce into it, he would suck, scrunch his face up, look at me, and start yammering unhappily in what I can only assume were baby curse words. After a few minutes, he would cry if I so much as put the nipple in his mouth. HOW DARE I. So we caved and made him a milk bottle and he wolfed it down in no time.

Attempt #2: This morning we had 4 ounces of milk and added 1-2 ounces of formula to it. "We'll sneak it in - he'll never know!" we thought. Again, we thought incorrectly. Stephen said Asher attempted to drink it, very slowly, but finally gave up because, dammit, there was FORMULA in the bottle!

UGH.

We're going to keep trying, though, and I'm going to do some further research on this hopefully common roadblock. Perhaps we'll try the method that Angela used on Rowan, mixing juice with the formula. Of course, Asher hasn't tried juice yet, so he probably won't like that one bit, either. If anyone has any advice, we can use it!

UPDATE: Stephen informed me when they got home that Auntie Laurie not only got Asher to eat an entire container of pears today, but also successfully managed to give him a bottle of formula. I'm going to need confirmation of this shocking news.