Starting Over

​Today Leon had his one-month pediatrician visit, even though technically he’s five weeks old. He’s now 11 lbs 3 oz, which means he’s gained almost 3 lbs since his visit a couple weeks ago! They don’t joke around when they say kids grow up fast!

While we were waiting for the nurse to come back with Leon’s hepatitis B shot (which he didn’t cry for, might I add), I pulled out a bottle I had prepped for him. I rarely give him bottles — only when we’re in public and it would be inconvenient to breastfeed. Leon seemed uninterested and let the milk dribble out of his mouth and pool in his neck rolls. I assumed he wasn’t hungry…but was confused because he had been acting hungry up until that point. Oh well, I figured, we’ll be home soon and can try again.

Once we got home and I was propped up on the couch with Leon happily feeding away, I read a post on a January 2017 babies Facebook group from a woman bemoaning her high lipase milk. She said her baby wouldn’t drink the milk and she had to donate her freezer stash. I was curious, so I poured a little from Leon’s bottle into a glass and drank it. It was pretty nasty — does my milk actually taste like that?!

I decided to do a single-blind study.

When Minh got home, I gave him a glass of fresh breastmilk to taste (our control). He drank it but kind of looked at me weird, wondering why I was suddenly asking him to drink my milk. Then I gave him a glass of the breastmilk in Leon’s bottle (which was pumped three days ago). Minh slurped it and almost immediately thrust Leon into my arms. I watched pathetically as he gagged and hurled the sour milk into the houseplant behind our couch.

Hmm.

I thawed my oldest bag from the freezer with the intention of taste-testing it, but after pouring it into a glass, I chickened out — the smell alone was almost nauseating.

So I’ve bought a bottle warmer and thermometer to scald my pumped milk from now on, but in the meantime I’ve got about 100 oz of milk that my son won’t drink. I’m not crying over spilled milk only because I can donate it to the NICU for tube-fed babies (which I hoped to do eventually anyway), but I’m definitely not thrilled to be starting over.

On the bright side, at least I found out before Leon started daycare…