Shhh!

Billy often comes to this random conclusions about Bella without doing any research or consultation with experts. I, on the other hand, research each move thoroughly, discuss it with my iVillage board and the other moms in my life, wait another week and ask her ped or a nurse.

So why is it that his arbitrary decisions more often pan out? For example, I put Bella on soy formula when we stopped breastfeeding. The soy made it hard for her to poo, so she'd have to draw her hands into fists and grunt loudly to do her business. Billy was convinced she'd be okay with regular formula but I held out. Earlier this month, we ran out of soy but had some regular samples on hand so we tried them. Bella was a whole new girl and Billy acted like he had solved world hunger.

Fast forward to today. I tried to move Bella up to the fast flow nipple (Playtex drop-ins system) about a month ago and she had a really hard time with it. She sucked in a lot of air and couldn't seem to swallow fast enough, so milk constantly ran out of her mouth. Billy has been convinced that she's ready - probably because it takes up to 40 minutes to feed her with the slow flow nipple.

I decided to try it today because she was in a good mood and had just had a long nap so I knew she wasn't crazy hungry. Lo and behold - she sucked that bottle down in about 15 minutes with no mishaps. No gasping, no gulping, no mess. She burped twice in the middle and twice at the end and was done. There wasn't even any spit up afterwards (which started happening when we switched to the regular formula).

But I don't want to tell Billy. He already thinks he needs to write his own book about how to raise the perfect baby. I don't think I'm ready to admit that all the advice in the world didn't beat out his random, just-because decision!