Adventures in Breastfeeding and Bottle-feeding #forbetterbeginnings

Kid's Fashion, Lifestyle

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Oh, breastfeeding. It can be wonderful or it can be a real s t r u g g l e. The experience can change from baby to baby, but also day to day, and the emotional rollercoaster of the journey can be exhausting – especially when you throw in a little sleep deprivation for good measure ;) We all know how beneficial breastmilk is for our babies, but it’s not always as easy as you imagine it to be when you’re pregnant. I remember people telling me it “would come naturally”, it would be a great bonding experience, and so on. Well, what happens when it doesn’t come naturally? What happens when it’s not a great experience? Mom guilt, that’s what. So, from one mom to another I want to start by saying, “good job mama, keep up the good work”. This post will be a review on the PlaytexBaby products we have been using (and loving) but I hope that it will also be a conversation starter for anyone who wants to talk about their breastfeeding and/or bottle-feeding journeys. DM me anytime or leave a comment below. Motherhood can be hard but a little support from others goes a long way.

 

With each of my babies I’ve gotten to experience the joy and the beautiful feeling of connectedness that can come with nursing your baby. Unfortunately, this time around that feeling was short-lived and quickly replaced by feelings of anxiety when my baby needed more milk than I had to give him. He struggled with weight gain for the first six weeks of his life while I tried everything to increase my supply. I tried so hard, but it simply wasn’t enough, and by his eight week doctor’s appointment he had dropped back down to his birth weight. “Arghh! Failure! Worst mom ever!” said my brain. We started supplementing with formula that same day and thankfully, he fattened up quickly and became the happiest baby on the block. After the initial feeling of failure, I’ve come to realize how lucky he is to be getting both breastmilk and the formula that we need, but it hasn’t been easy and as a #PlaytexMom I wanted to post a photo for the community of moms that showed the daily struggle. Because my milk supply is so low, he often hates nursing and goes on full boob strikes for days at a time where I have to pump my milk and then feed it to him in bottles and supplement as well. As a working mother of three the inefficiency of this kills me! To get it all done, I often end up pumping while feeding him a bottle. Whether you’re exclusively breastfeeding and trying to get baby to take a bottle of your milk, or you’re exclusively pumping, or you’re nursing but with a nipple shield, or you’re bottle-feeding exclusively, or any other combination of ways to feed your baby – know that you’re doing a good job. You’re feeding your sweet baby and it’s probably not always easy.

 

As a mom that has tried pretty much every bottle on the market at this point, I feel confident offering up an honest review of the Playtex® Ventaire™ Bottles. I hadn’t tried them until recently but once I did, I literally gave away our huge assortment of bottles and nipples that we had collected over the years and went out and bought more Playtex® Ventaire™ Bottles to use at each feeding. There are so many good things to tell you about them. First of all, there is a variety of nipples to try and they all fit the Playtex® Ventaire™ Bottles AND the Playtex Baby™ Nurser® with Drop-Ins® Liners. You can buy the Nipple Variety Pack to see which one your baby likes the best instead of having to try out all different bottle and nipple combos. The NaturalLatch® Nipple is our favourite and makes going back and forth between the bottle’s nipple and mother’s breast easier. Another thing we love is that the bottle is angled and if you want even more angle, you can pair it with the angled nipple as well so that you can feed with baby sitting straight up to help prevent gas and ear infections and to put us in the perfect position for just leaning back against my chest for optimum snuggling during night time feeds. The Playtex® Ventaire™ Bottles have a venting system that keeps air at the back of the bottle to drastically reduce the amount of air they take in which is what causes the painful gas for their little bellies. The bottoms also twist off which makes cleaning them so much easier than traditional bottles that you can only access from the top. Finally, they are made of a BPA free plastic so they’re lightweight for feeding baby in the middle of the night when you’re exhausted, or for carrying around in the diaper bag with you during the day. We had glass bottles before but glass is both heavy and breakable and I’m much happier with these. I could go on but I’ll leave it there for now because I still need to talk about the Playtex® Sipsters® Cups! The Playtex® Ventaire™ Bottles are available at Amazon.ca, BabiesRus, Walmart, or Playtexbaby.ca.

 

My girls are loving the 12m+ Playtex® Sipsters® Cups with the straw that pops out. We fill them up with water each morning and they carry them around all day refilling as needed. The good news is they are actually spill proof which is hard to come by in the land of sippy cups. My three year old leaves hers on it’s side on my bed all the time and I’m happy to report back that it doesn’t leak. They also have cute designs on them like monsters and animals and even Peppa Pig or Batman. They come apart easily which makes washing simple and everything is dishwasher-safe as well. We have had stainless steel water bottles for them in the past and while they are also lightweight, the designs always end up peeling off of them in the dishwasher. I could of course do without any of the designs but alas, kids love them ;) You can find the Sipsters at BabiesRus, Amazon.ca, Walmart, or Playtex.ca

 

So that was a long post, but I had a lot to say. I hope my blurb on feeding babies put some of you at ease. Do what works for you and know that before long, your tiny infant will be a  big kid running through fields with their sippy cups and you’ll miss those days of breastfeeding and/or bottle-feeding because the cuddles are the best. When you look back, I’ll bet you’ll wish you didn’t worry quite so much or put so much pressure on yourself. ♡

 

The Playtex® Ventaire™ Bottle and the Playtex Baby™ Nurser® with Drop-Ins® Liners Nurser are up for a moms’ pick award on BabyCenter.ca! Head over and cast your vote if you love either as much as we do.