Feeding the Finicky Firstborn
Indiana Jones went on a lifelong quest to find the holy grail. I’ve been on a month-long quest to find the perfect nipple.
Avery was sent home from the hospital with nipples simply for backup just in case I wanted a break from breastfeeding him. He was sent home with only 6 pieces, although I probably could’ve asked for more. But because bottlefeeding was not going to be Avery’s primary means of feeding, I settled for the 6.
Well, the breastfeeding thing never really worked. Avery just never learned to effectively latch on so I just pumped and then fed him with a bottle. My breasts eventually dried up, but that’s another blog entry altogether.
Anyway, for the first 3 months, we just cycled through the 6 nipples Avery had. I didn’t rush into getting him new ones because I figured it would be simple enough to do. Afterall, everytime I’ve gone grocery shopping there seemed to be an abundant supply of nipples in the baby aisle. Since I gauge the complexity of picking up items based on their grocery store availability, surely the task of buying new nipples would definitely be elementary.
Well, it became painfully obvious that my assumptions were very wrong when the time came to get new nipples. I go to Babies R Us and I kid you not, I spend no less than an hour and a half trying to choose just a nipple. Not even the perfect nipple, but just a nipple. Geez, I had noooooo idea nipples came in so many different sizes, shapes, colors and textures!! I naively thought that there existed a one-nipple-pleased-all. Very, very wrong.
Ok, I’ll spare you guys the boring details, but the condensed version goes a little something like this: I buy nipples. Avery hates said nipples. I throw nipples away. Repeat this about 10 times. The end.
***UPDATE***
After Melvin suggested I call the hospital to find out where the only nipples Avery will use come from, I was given the website where I can order. Baby Jones’ one and only nipple is the Enfamil Standard-Flow Soft.