What? What's the big deal?

Starting next Thursday, I'm going back to work. It's only for two days a week, and the daycare situation worked out like a magical dream. Right after Jack was born, The Husband switched his work schedule to four ten-hour days, and Father-in-law said he could stay home from his job one day a week and look after Jack. This is something we couldn't have asked him to do, but we're thrilled he volunteered. You can't beat free day care from a person who already loves Jack to pieces. As an added bonus, the in-laws only live ten minutes from where I work, so I will be able to nurse Jack at lunchtime one of the two days I work.

Now, we had been planning all along that I would be going back to work part time. As such, we started Jack on bottles when he was a month old because we wanted to avoid the trap so many breastfed babies fall into of refusing to take a bottle. The Husband gave him one bottle a week while I was at choir practice. He experimented with different fancy (read: expensive) bottles and nipples before settling on a combination of Dr. Brown's and Breastflow bottles, and we went to the specialty baby store to stock up. We spent quite a bit of money and went home, comfortable in the thought that we were all set.

But then I didn't go to choir practice because The Husband had the flu. And then I had the flu. And then it was canceled. And canceled again. In short, Jack went without a bottle for four weeks. But we were all set! He had been taking them no problem! We were fine!

Can you read between the lines of my incredibly subtle foreshadowing? That's right! He stopped taking the bottle! Three weeks ago, we left him with Father-in-law for five hours as a sort of practice run, and when we got back we learned that he had not eaten anything the entire time. So he was fine for the first two hours, but the last three were pretty tough on both Father-in-law and Jack.

I panicked for awhile, because I did not know what I would do if he wouldn't take a bottle, but after talking it over with The Husband, we arrived at a solution. First, we'd keep trying to get him to take a bottle. But, if he refused, I would just explain to my boss that I might have to leave work several times a day to feed the baby, and The Husband would have to come stay at his parents' house on the day he was watching Jack. Fortunately, I am lucky to work for a very accommodating boss who went along with this plan. Unfortunately, this plan is sort of a huge pain for me and especially for The Husband who would have to join me on my hour-long commute on his day off.

But babies like to keep you on your toes. Last week I spent about five days trying to get Jack to drink juice from a bottle. (We're having some digestive issues which I will spare you, but don't yell at me; the juice was doctor-prescribed.) He would have none of it for four days, and then all of a sudden on Thursday he accepted the bottle like an old pro. He acted like he had been drinking from a bottle for his whole life and what on earth was I getting so excited about? Sheesh.

The last thing I want to point out is that, although we are thrilled to pieces that he is finally taking a bottle, we are ever so slightly frustrated that he will not drink from the fancy schmancy expensive Dr. Brown's or Breastflow bottles. No. He will only accept the cheap-o nipples that are available at any and every drug and grocery store.

Does anyone need some gently used fancy schmancy bottles?