Breaking the Rules

I was bad last night. I probably deserve a time out. But I really don't feel at all guilty about what I did, in fact...I feel like I did the right thing. Here's the deal:

Smiley's mom called me last night and asked if I would babysit Smiley so she could go out again. Yeah, sure. No problem. So I show up, Smiley is up, hasn't slept all day, blah blah blah. He had just eaten 4oz. and she told me not to let him eat again for 2 hrs. and the only let him eat 4 oz. at the next feeding. Okay, whatever--no big deal. She leaves, and Smiley starts trying to nurse on me, his hand, basically anything he could get ahold of. I gave him his pacifier but that didn't work. He kept spitting it out and going for my boob. He's not breastfed anymore, but he was for 3 months. I look at the clock, 1 hr. too early for him to eat. *sigh* So I managed to hold him off for another 45 minutes and then fed him 15 minutes early. But this isn't the breaking the rules part. The breaking the rules part is this:

He sucked down the 4 oz. bottle in about 10 minutes. After he finished that, he was again sucking on anything he could get his hands on, and going for my boob. So I did a bad thing. I broke the rules. I made him another bottle, and he drank 2 oz. of it before nodding off to sleep. And you know what happened then? He slept, and slept, and slept some more. He didn't wake up for another bottle 2 hrs. later, he even lost his pacifier while he was sleeping and he didn't wake up--which is unusual for him. Generally when he uses his pacifier he wakes up right away and screams bloody murder.

So, yeah. I'm bad. I need a time out. I asked her why he's only allowed to drink 4 oz. at a time, and why only every 2 hrs. Her reason? "I don't want a fat baby." Okay, yeah. Now I REALLY don't feel at all guilty for giving him 6 oz. My opinion is let them eat/drink as much formula/breast milk as they want. He's 3 1/2 months old for crying out loud. Granted yes, he was born at 6lbs. 14oz and 18.25 inches long and is now 12lbs. 7oz & 25.5 inches long, but seriously---why limit the amount he can eat?

I understand that there are certain situations where you need to limit how much they eat at one sitting. I've watched kids where there's a medical reason for them to only eat a certain amount at a time. I just find it hard to watch a kid who is OBVIOUSLY still hungry and deny him food when there's no medical reason to do so.

Anyways, you parents out there can bash me all you want. I'm not watching your kids so it won't affect you. I just needed to vent a little bit about my frustration. I mean, "I don't want a fat baby" is not a good enough reason for me to deny an infant food. Sorry, ain't gonna happen.