Feeding your baby, whether it's from your breast or a bottle, is an opportunity to bond with your baby. Enjoy those close moments. All too soon, your baby will be grown up, and grabbing a meal with mom may not be as high on his list of priorities.

Settle into a comfortable chair with a nearby table on which to rest the bottle when you stop to reposition the baby. Turn off the phone and try to minimize other distractions. Hold your baby snuggled close, positioning his head in line with the rest of his body. He should be at about a 45-degree angle, so that his ears are higher than his mouth and his head tips back slightly. (Adjust the angle if your baby spits up during the feeding, but don't hold your baby completely flat. The milk can back up into the Eustachian tube and cause an ear infection.) Pick up the bottle and then, with one finger on the hand holding the bottle, stroke the baby's cheek that is closest to your body. When he turns toward you, brush his lips with the nipple, and let him latch on himself; don't stuff it in. Make sure the tip of the nipple is in the back of his mouth. Hold the bottle firmly so it resists his suction; otherwise, he'll just be moving the bottle around instead of getting the milk out.

As he drinks, keep adjusting the angle of the bottle so that the nipple is always full of milk and not air. Don't tip the bottle up any more than you have to; the more you tip it up, the faster the flow, and a gulping baby is likely to swallow air. If the flow is too slow, however, your baby may get frustrated and fuss, or lose interest and doze off.

When your baby seems to fuss or pull away, stop for a burp, and then offer him the bottle again. If he's not interested, don't push him to finish the bottle. And don't obsess about how much your baby eats. Nursing mothers don't know how much their babies get, and breastfed babies do just fine. The amounts will vary from day to day, so just make sure that your baby is steadily gaining weight.

If your baby doesn't finish a bottle of pumped breastmilk, you don't have to throw out the leftovers. Put it back in the refrigerator and bring it out for the next feeding, but don't do this more than twice. Leftover formula breeds bacteria more easily than breastmilk, so unfinished amounts should be thrown away.