breast vs bottle

I've been wanting to do this post for awhile now. Finally I got a minute! Before I had my lil
boy I basically thought the difference in breast feeding and formula feeding was just that- the type of milk/nutrition they got. I quickly realized it was way more then that! It's almost a whole different way of caring for your baby.

The breast and breastmilk is a major comfort for baby. much differnt from the bottle. I dont think Brady would be comforted by a bottle when he needs calm down enough to fall asleep as he can by simply placing his check to my breast.

Lets see... we do about 12 feedings a day.... he has gotten maybe 2-3 dozen bottles of expressed breastmilk, all other feedings given by me. So, I have done about 99.5% of his feedings. This can be good and bad. Good because I know my baby so well. He rarely spits up at night. He always spits up the most after his first morning feeding. I have to burp him differently when he is sleeping then when he is awake. If I burp him too long when he is awake he seems to spit up more. He seems to have the same amount of gas pretty much every day- and his gas is worse during the day. He has only woken a handful of times from gas at night. The only food I can say "yes, that gave him problems" is sour kraut. It was clear as day that somehting was very different from his every day gas after I ate the sour kraut and it just isnt worth it to eat that for his sake! And mom doing so many feedings can be bad because that is her getting up at night every 1.5-3 hours! (Speaking of that, it is catching up with me again!) Also bad because dad has to find other ways to bond with baby.

No bottles to wash!!!!! No formula to mix while your half asleep! It's so easy to pull out the boob and snuggle up for a feeding. The snuggles are extra special considering it is winter! Soemtimes being out of the house and figuring out what to do can be a hassle, but we are figuring it out.... stores let you BF in fitting rooms! otherwise we are ok in the car too.

Especially in those first couple weeks, with Brayden cluster/comfort feeding- wow, that was a lot on a very tired mom! From day one he knew who mom was and looked to me for comfort.

As I go back to work we will have to figure out a new routine of what will work well for us. Just pump and bottle feed? pump in day, breast when home? Not really sure! but we will get into a routine in no time.