My experience with Bottle-feeding

I tried but I could not breastfeed my baby girl. I tried
for 3 months but it wasn't ever enough for her. She needed formula
to supplement my milk.

There are many benefits to breastmilk that we all know.One of them is not
 being able to calculate how much in ounces the baby is having or should have.

I talk in ounces alright. I was never into Milliliters. I was already too
much into the US BabyCenter to come back into the Indian Metric System( Its a
better system though) .

The baby was suggested formula from Day 2 of her life.The hospital I delivered is
somehow against bottle-feeding. They suggested spoon-feeding.

From whatever little I knew of babies, I knew by reflex, they are built to suck.
So it seemed wrong to feed the baby with a spoon.
So I decided on introducing bottles.

Again. I went the American way for Dr.Brown's.It was supposed to help prevent
 air getting into the baby and causing gas or in other words,colic.The baby's first
bottle was bought by my brother in US.

The baby took on to the bottle easily,actually better than the breast. I felt less of
a mother in a weak moment but I knew doing the best for her, made me a mother
not only breastfeeding.

Next thing to worry about was the water used to mix in the formula and sterilization. I had a choice of
using spring water or mineral water or boiled water. I chose boiled water.

Sterilisation of bottles was a pain. In a day, we used 8 bottles. SO that was a lot
of bottles to wash,clean and boil off.
We started with 2 ounces on demand for the first month. I am a huge believer of
scheduling. So from second month on ,she got a bottle of 3 ounces every 2 hours.
At 6 months,on introducing solids,she herself delayed her bottles and we changed
them to 4 ounces every 4 hours and only one in the night. We gave up the last nightly
feed in the 8th month. After that till 1 and half years , she had a bottle of
6-9 ounces 3 times a day.

I weaned her of the bottles one at at time from the moment she turned 1.
She loved to drink out of a sippy cup or even a normal cup but it was never
 more than 4-6 ounces.

She had her final bottle at 1 year ,8 months. It was a easy transition. I didnt have
 to really do much. Each time she seemed to be ready.

The important thing here was she was being fed well and was gaining weight
well and was healthy. If she would  have held on to the bottles longer, I wouldnt
have minded.But I was happy she did leave them before 2.