Crying Over Spoiled Milk

If you heard a celebratory shriek or felt the earth tremble a little sometime today, it may very well have been me, performing the world's most exuberant happy dance. Why? Because Ellie is finally "hitting the bottle," which means that I can do a little bottle-hitting (or, at least, margarita-slurping) of my own as I rock out to the New Kids next week!

Ta-da!

The magical solution came about after I had to go into work for a half-day meeting yesterday, and Ellie categorically refused to ingest any and all milk offered to her via bottle OR medicine dropper during the 5 hours I was gone. Since the dropper had been my backup plan, I became a little discouraged--okay, monumentally bummed and more than a little panicked. People kept telling me she'd take it if she got hungry enough, but that didn't appear to be the case, and the back-to-work clock is ticking loudly these days.

Anyway, I thought it was weird that she went so far as to spit out the milk Bear gave her with the dropper, and remembered having read about excess lipase a while back. I'd dismissed it as strange and probably pretty rare, but it sure would explain why she kept making yucky faces no matter what feeding method we tried. I followed the directions I found online, scalding some newly-pumped milk immediately afterward and then putting it in the fridge, and offered her a bottle of it later that day. No problemo: she drank it without complaint!

The heavens opened, angels sang, and I came THISCLOSE to twirling around in a meadow Julie Andrews-style. I don't think I fully realized how stressed I was about this until the weight came off my shoulders! It's a whole new world of possibilities now: not only can I go back to work without worrying that she's at home starving, but all the Girls' Night Out invitations I've been turning down for months are back on the table. Let freedom ring!

Poor Ellie. We've spent weeks trying to convince her to drink gnarly milk! Then again, we've spent a month of angst and wasted about $75 buying every bottle on the market...so I guess we're even. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must return to my happy dance!