This past week we had a breakthrough: Ruthie started taking a bottle without much (if any) fuss.
I started on Thursday, offering her a bottle during her mid-day feeding. Every time she got frustrated, I'd stop and cuddle her for a bit, then offer it to her again. Eventually she settled in and drank a full 3oz bottle of liquid, to my extreme delight!
The next day, I tried it again. This time, without any fuss whatsoever, 5oz disappeared almost immediately. So when Saturday came around, and I had to shoot a wedding in downtown Annapolis, I had no worries. Stephen offered her the bottle. Again: 5oz down the hatch, no muss, no fuss!
This is wonderful.
Of course, it's a lot of work. I have to pump extra breastmilk to keep up a supply in our freezer, which means that I not only feel a bit like a cow, but I also spend a lot more time cleaning, sterilizing, and pumping in order to make it happen.
This lovely bit of progress is coupled with another beautiful thing: Ruth is now sleeping in her crib.
She goes down around 8pm (ish), and fusses a little, on and off, for the first hour or so after that. All that's required is a little singing and patting on the tummy to settle back down. At most, I pick her up when something scares her, she needs changing, or she needs to burp.
This is wonderful.
She still feeds twice at night, which, if timed poorly, can leave me very bedraggled in the mornings. And there have been a few nights where she's woken up off and on every hour or so, bothered by something (I can't tell what; perhaps it's teething). So she's not a miracle baby; we still have our bad nights on occasion.
In spite of that, it's apparent that Ruth's getting used to it. It's actually nice to have her in the room with us. I don't have to get up very far to feed her, and listening to her breathing at night makes me, well, breathe easier.