If you’re reading this post to see which one reigns supreme, here’s a spoiler, it’s the boob! The boob will always win over the bottle, no contest. Hell, without the boob, there would just be an empty bottle.
Yes, of course there’s formula, but since the ideal food source would be boob, I am not taking formula into account. For anyone who does formula feed, I’m not attacking you at all, so please take no offense. We feel very lucky that Avery is able to and willingly accepts breast milk, and I understand that’s not the case for all babies.
An issue Kelley and I have had disagreements with (she is going to hate that I’m blogging about this; sorry Kelley, I love you!) is how I feed Avery. In the mornings when we first wake up and Kelley is getting ready for work, I will start the first bottle of the day. Some mornings Avery is more fussy than others, but it always seems she is stubborn about taking the bottle.
Admittedly, I do try to get her to take it for too long which just makes her more fussy, or my position is wrong. Kelley has lectured me on this, and I am more accepting when Avery won’t take the bottle, I just give it a break. If Avery continues to be fussy, Kelley will get on to me thinking I’m still trying to get her to take the bottle, but that’s not it, she’s just fussy then.
Kelley will then say that she’ll feed her directly from the source, but I know she really needs to get ready for work. Anyway, after we go back and forth, Kelley will head to work and then I’ll try the bottle again.
Guess what? Avery is way more accepting of the bottle without mom around. I’m pretty confident that when mom is home, Avery knows she could have better than some plastic bottle with a fake rubber nipple; she wants the real thing! So, as we already know, the boob wins against the bottle hands down, but the bottle is also very necessary for us guys.
As a SAHD, I’m useless if I’m not armed with bottles to feed Avery, and I depend on the boob to reload those bottles every day.
Here are a few pros and cons to further prove the boob’s #1 status:
Bottle
- Convenient and portable
- Allows others to feed and give mom a break
- Gets the healthy fat stuck on the side
- Have to be cleaned afterward
- Costs money
- Not a boob
Boob
- Convenient and portable
- Nothing to clean once done feeding
- Free source of the best stuff
- No fat stuck on the side
- Dad (or anyone else) can’t use to feed baby
- Babies eventually get teeth
Obviously the boob is the preferred choice, and yes Kelley, I bow down to you and the almighty boob. I don’t want to argue about anymore and I no longer try to make Avery take the bottle if she is being unruly. I just give her a break and try again later. But I swear, she will chug the thing in one sitting when we’re alone!
Any other couples have this issue? How do you both come to terms on feeding?