Monday, June 14, 2010

I feel guilty.

Duh. I'm a mom.

So in the last few weeks Henry has had one bottle of formula every single day. For some inane reason I feel guilty about this. Formula is awesome, it feeds babies and they grow in to healthy, strong, well-adjusted adults. Why do I feel guilty or feel like something is wrong about this? I mean LLL (La Leche League) would have a bone to pick with me, but I'm not that hardcore about my breastfeeding, so what's the rub?

Jack never ever ever successfully took a bottle. We didn't even try till he was 4 months old. So his diet was 'pure'. For me, it was the longest year of my life. I couldn't go anywhere, for a whole year. I was like peanut butter to that kid's jelly. Maybe I feel guilty about that.

Sometimes I wonder if these bottles could mess up my supply, between the bottle and Henry sleeping 10 hours at a time I bet my boobs are thinking "WTF am I supposed to be doing here?!" I mean if I'm being logical, one bottle a day is consistent, so why should that cause a supply issue?

But today was the first day in a while that Henry didn't need a bottle. I feel like Rocky, having jogged to the top of the Art Museum steps.

Mom-guilt. It's annoying and it's unavoidable.

3 comments:

melaniet42 said...

I'd say "don't feel guilty", but that won't change how you feel anyhow... But seriously, Jillian was given formula in NICU before I ever got her on the boob. I was *horrified*. But I got over it. It was awesome to use formula in the hospital before my milk came in (I actually got some sleep those first nights!). And after we got home, I continued. There were periods where she didn't get any formula, but for the most part, she got some formula daily. And I felt not a bit bad about it. Once I got over my initial reaction about her being given formula, I was, well, over it. You're doing a great job, mom!!!

Chelsea said...

I have an award for you waiting at my blog! Come by and pick it up!
Chelsea
http://vandylandmommy.blogspot.com

The Bliven Family said...

When Brady wouldn't latch on and he was screaming because he was hungry, the formula bottle was my lifesaver. When I saw how awesome it was, I felt guilty and cried for about 30 minutes and then got over it. How many adults go around bragging about whether they were breast or bottle-fed? Most of them don't even know. I figured it wasn't going to hurt him, so I jumped right in. Since he never latched (well, I kind of gave up after I realized how easy the bottle was) I pumped for about two months and bottle fed him breast milk. I don't feel less attached or anything. You can breathe...everything will be great!