He's on strike!

The Booger is posing some trouble as I return to the semi-real adult working world. Since he hit 6 months, he dropped a couple daytime feedings because his belly was big enough to fill up plus his solid foods in between were keeping him satisfied longer. This meant that even on days that I worked all day, I could nurse him on my lunch break, and he hasn't needed to have bottles. He went several weeks without any bottles at all, and had one when he spent the day with daddy at work. This past Monday I was unable to come home to nurse him, so we left a bottle.

That he adamantly refused for four hours until I got home. We didn't think much of it, I nursed him when I got home and we chalked it up to a fluke.

Until today. He refused to take it again. Let me describe to you the scene I discovered when I got lucky enough to come home early (Mind you I was excited to come home early and then I am greeted with a grouchy, incredibly displeased baby). The Booger sitting in his grandma's lap, slapping his bottle with quite an amazing amount of force, arching his back with every ounce he had, and squealing with an intense amount of displeasure. He then preceded to wiggle himself down, chew on the bottle, pull it out of his mouth, and screech some more. This went on for several minutes, all to my amazement that my generally good natured baby was throwing and all out baby tantrum! Complete with kicking feet.

The last couple times, we've offered the bottle a few times, then when he refused, gave him his usual cereal and fruit for lunch, and kept attempting to offer the bottle. But I think this is counteractive because then he's not really even hungry. After some talking with my sister, I think we've decided to not give him lunch until he takes his bottle. My rationale is that breastmilk is more important than anything else as this point, so we'll wait until he's hungry enough to take his bottle. I've also thought about offering it in a sippy cup. (Stay tuned for more ponderings about those crazy things!)

Ugh! I've barely even started getting into what will be our new situation, and am torn enough just knowing how much I will miss him from now on. Doesn't he know this is hard enough without worrying about him eating enough? Anyone have any suggestions for their own bottle strike experiences?

The naughty boy being cute as a button