Overthinking

I am notorious for over thinking things. Researching something until my head is spinning. When we got pregnant, I only did about a thousand hours worth of research on baby items. And getting it all back out with Hadley, I'm still pleased with what I chose and why I chose it (except for a pump - I should have bought the more expensive pump!). I also only read a ton of books on births (all natural, no c-sections, quite the shock when we were told she was breech and only coming via c-section - I had to make my sister bring me my birth book so I could read that part...). And of course I did a bunch of reading about taking care of a newborn, so I felt fairly prepared for taking care of Avery.
So, anyway, back to my post: Hadley will be 4 weeks old tomorrow and it was time to introduce a bottle to her. As much as I would love to exclusively breastfeed her, I do plan on going back to work when she's about 12 weeks old, and from what I've read 3-4 weeks old is a good time to introduce a bottle if you have a good breastfeeder. And yeah, that's all from tons of articles I've been reading about introducing a bottle in the past week. I was stressing about it and over thinking it.
What if she takes a bottle, then gets confused and doesn't want to nurse again??
What if she will never take a bottle and I'll have no other way to feed her when I'm not here?

Well, we went ahead and gave her about an ounce that I pumped earlier in the day when she was ready to eat, but not too hungry (that's what the articles say to do). They also say to switch the baby halfway through the feeding, from one side to the other. Oh, and don't shove the nipple in her mouth, make her take it like when she's nursing. Make sure she's sitting up and not laying back. Is she taking it? Is she? What's wrong with that nipple? Is the milk supposed to be in it like that?

That was me, to Andrew, the entire feeding. I hovered around him while he was trying to feed her, like a nervous bird or something.

Turns out, Hadley drank just about all of the ounce. She wasn't too fond of it. I think she expected a pacifier and was surprised when milk came out. She got this really confused look on her face and scrunched up her nose like, "You guys are completely nuts."
I nursed her the rest of the way right after she was done burping, and she was just fine. No confusion that I saw. So, it looks like we'll be introducing a little bit of milk to her in a bottle everyday until she gets the hang of it. She's going to be left with my mom and dad on Sunday while I go to church, so just in case she gets hungry during that time, I need her to at least take most of a bottle for a feeding. (Andrew is leading this weekend and I am teaching 2nd service Sunday School and would rather not leave her with the nursery just yet, and I think she'd be a distraction in class, so I need someone to watch her for a few hours.)

So, anyway, the whole giving her a bottle thing was not as hard as I expected. We never dealt with it with Avery because she was given a bottle right away in the NICU since the main goal there is to lose as little weight as possible. Full term babies can lose up to 7% or so of their birth weight without it being an issue, meaning that when moms are only producing colostrum, they can still breastfeed until their milk fully comes in within a day or two. With preemies that are already at low birth weights, you DON'T want them losing all of that weight. So, even though I was pumping and they were able to give her breast milk for about half of her feedings, she still needed high calorie food in her belly. And if she lost too much weight, they'd have to put in a feeding tube. Avery did have nipple confusion and latch issues, but she gained weight appropriately, which is all that matters.
Hadley does not have latch issues and no nipple confusion, which is the way I want to keep it. But she also needs to take a bottle at some point.

Here's to hoping that the next week of introducing the bottle goes smoothly and she catches on quickly. And that I will STOP over thinking the bottle issue and just go with the flow. And quit bugging my husband so much when he gets the chance to feed his baby. :)