Props to Dad

This is Charlotte here. While I'm proud to say that Susannah's growth is fueled with 100% breastmilk, lately, Alex has been taking responsibility for some of her feedings. Some of you may be wondering how this works. Thanks to the wonders of modern breastpump technology, anyone can feed a baby breastmilk, even if they don't actually have breasts!
Here's how we've been doing it. On say, a Monday, I wake up in the morning, pump milk, and store it in the fridge. On Tuesday morning, Alex wakes up with Susannah (which happens to be very early), puts Monday's milk in a bottle, heats it up, and feeds her. I may wake briefly, but I can go right back to sleep knowing that Dad's got everything under control. When I wake up after a bit of extra shut-eye, I pump for the next morning's feeding.
Although I'm on maternity leave and could nurse for every feeding, these once-daily bottle feedings are important so that she learns and remembers how to drink from a bottle. If you wait until a baby is 3-4 months old when mom goes back to work before you introduce a bottle, they might not want anything except the boob, which would obviously make it impossible for them to eat while they're in daycare. However, you can't give a baby a bottle when they're too young because it may undermine breastfeeding due to "nipple confusion". Babies will generally accept the bottle without too much fuss when they're about 3-4 weeks old. By that time breastfeeding is well-established and the introduction of a bottle is not likely to mess things up. What we have found is that Susannah seems to like breastfeeding better, but if you give her breastmilk in a bottle instead, she drinks it without too much fuss.
I do enjoy nursing our daughter, but I must admit it has been really helpful having Alex doing the morning feedings so I can sleep a bit more. At this point some of you may be thinking that Alex is getting the short end of the stick on sleep. Well, before you write me off as a negligent mother, I will point out that I do the middle-of-the-night feeding (at about 2 or 3 AM) while Alex sleeps. This arrangement seems to be working out pretty well, plus it gives Alex and Susannah some father-daughter bonding time without me getting in the way.