New Dad Basics: How to make a bottle

There are some very basic tasks that you will need to be able to execute to survive the first few weeks with a newborn in the house.  This includes how to make a bottle to how to change a diaper. If you don’t know the standard procedures for these necessary tasks, your next few weeks will be hell.  If you are prepared, then the transition will be much smoother and you’ll surprise the heck out of your wife.

Bottle-Making Basics

If you and the lady have decided to only give your child breast milk (for whatever reason), then make sure that there is a supply frozen in the freezer for the night time feedings.  If she’s only producing enough milk to get by from feeding to feeding, then you won’t have to worry so much about the feeding aspect of your new role.  Not much you can do from that stand point.  However, if you do have some frozen, and the baby wakes up for her feeding in the middle of the night, here is how you proceed:

1. Get the frozen milk from the freezer.
2. Place the bottle of frozen milk in a cup of warm water.
3. Let it sit in the water and thaw out.  You may have to change out the water a time or two to continually warm the milk.  Do NOT use the microwave.  Microwaves heat things unevenly and you can burn the baby.  That’s not how you want to start out your father-daughter or father-son relationship.    
4. Once the milk has come to room temperature (you can aid the process by periodically swirling the milk in the bottle), make sure that you have enough measured out for the feeding.  This can be anywhere from 2 to 4 ounces.  Start with 2 ounces, and make more if you need it.  Try not to make more than you need.  That’s stuff’s precious.  
5.  The milk is at a decent temperature, and the baby is hungry.  You are ready to feed the baby. 

 If you are making a bottle with powdered formula, then this is an even simpler process.  It’s typically a 2:1 ratio of water to powder.  If so, then the following steps would apply:

1. Pour 2 ounces of distilled water (not tap water) into the bottle.  The water should be room temperature and not refrigerated.  Set the bottle on the counter and get down even with it to make sure you have 2 ounces, and not 3 or 4 ounces (especially important when you are half awake at 4:00am in the morning).
2. Add 1 scoop of powdered formula to the bottle.  If you are making a 4 ounce bottle, then use 2 scoops. 
3. Cap the bottle with a nipple.
4. Mix the formula by swirling it or shaking it sideways.  Do not shake it up and down.  The powder will get stuck in the nipple, blocking the flow of formula to the baby.  You’ll end up with a very upset child and will have lost 20 minutes trying to figure out the problem. 
5. Go forth and feed thy screaming child. 

There you have it.  You have now been upgraded to Baby Chef.  Time for some epic feedings!