So as anyone who pays attention knows, we've had LOTS of feeding issues. Cliffs notes are that I was trying to EBF but spent 8 weeks struggling with low supply, major nipple wounds, lip and tongue tie, nursing strikes, bottle strikes, and formula strikes which meant for 8 weeks there was no real consistency for a long period of time and she was breast fed, bottle fed breast milk, and bottle fed formula-- in varying combinations. At this point (for the past 3 weeks) she only gets bottles, both breast milk and formula.

About 2/3 of the time now she takes the bottle, no problem. But then randomly, once or twice a day, she flips her shit at taking the bottle. As soon as I get the bottle in her mouth she starts screaming, flailing, arching her back, the whole 9 yards. When she does, we try to calm her down and try again (with some tricks like walking around/bouncing her while trying again, giving her a paci first then switching out for a bottle, etc). Usually then after a few minutes she'll latch onto the bottle and go to town like she's starving. But sometimes we fight and fight and fight and she either eats, but fitfully (suck suck suck screeaaaammmmmm voraciously suck suck suck flaaaailll suck suck suck cryyyyyy). And sometimes we fight and fight and she just won't eat.

I'm almost always positive she IS hungry these times. The timing is right for her to be hungry, and other times when she is full she doesn't cry, she just leaves the bottle in her mouth but leaves her mouth open and doesn't suck. Since she usually does end up eating the times she flips her shit (and eating like she's starving)-- I feel like it isn't a lack of hunger issue.

But wtf is the issue then? Is this normal behavior for babies? I sort of thought that when they were hungry, and food was offered, they'd eat? Are we maybe still just working into our new bottle-only routine (even though it's been 3 weeks and her fighting the bottle is totally intermittent)?

I'm not really worried about her weight at this point, we win more battles than we lose and she is gaining on track. And if I had any confidence that she was legit not hungry I'd just let her be... but since I'm pretty sure she IS hungry I'm just not sure if there is anything I can do to decrease the drama in our house around meal times.

As an example of why she should be hungry, here was our (rougher than usual, admittedly) day today:

6am - feed 4 oz formula, distracted eating but not much drama

9am- feed 2 oz BM medium drama before eating 2 oz, then full out drama and abandoned feeding

11am- feed 3 oz BM with no drama, burped, when offered more she flipped her shit, high drama

3pm- woke up from a long nap screeaaaming in clear hunger, downed 6 oz BM like she'd been starved for a week

6pm- 2oz BM + 2 oz formula, no drama

9pm- huuuuge battle over eating anything at all, but did get down 4 oz breastmilk between screaming over the course of half an hour.

On "good" days she eats 4-5oz at a time. Thoughts?