A Battle Between Mom & Baby

Who do you think will win? I hope it’s me! I leave in a few days for a weekend away with a bunch of girl friends. This will be my first time away from Maddie for more than a few hours. To say that I am nervous is an understatement. My friends riding with me have promised they won’t let me drive home if I get lonely and Chuck promises that even if things aren’t going well, he will lie and tell me everything is great. I guess my wonderful family and friends think I deserve a little adult time!

Monday I started “Operation Maddie needs to eat from something other than mom”. The first day couldn’t have gone better. Maddie still doesn’t like bottles, but she will drink milk out of a cup. (I think she is far too young to be able to do this, but she does great at it!) I was sure she would be up in the middle of the night, but nope. She slept from 8pm – 7:30am. She only woke up briefly at midnight and 5, then promptly fell back asleep. I was impressed.

Today she was a little more upset in the morning. I think she thought yesterday was just a big joke. She is still incredibly happy and I am getting as much food in her as she will tolerate.

Now it’s just a waiting game to get her to take a bottle….or cup, or anything to drink more than an ounce or two of milk at a time. But she has to want to do it.

Maddie’s doctor assured us that Maddie won’t starve. She will drink from a bottle when she wants to. She said there were two options…I could be strict and diligent and cut her off from nursing. Knowing that it would take a couple days since Maddie won’t want to take a bottle from me. Or I could just wait until I left and have Chuck deal with it. Which might be faster. I just wasn’t going to have a very good weekend away if I left saying “good luck, I’m outta here!” So I took the other, longer route. Who doesn’t like a good challenge anyway, right?

So the first battle of mommyhood has begun! Now I just have to be strong and not give in. I can do it! I can do it! I can do it!