Every Wednesday, local moms will write about what they're eating and what they're feeding their kids. Today, News & Observer food editor Amber Nimocks writes about feeding her baby boy.

I remember the immense relief I felt when my son’s pediatrician told me I could begin supplementing my breastfeeding with formula. I felt like hugging him. I’d been trying for 3 1/2 months to breastfeed my son Sam, and it was going poorly.

Sam was born with TE fistula, a rare birth defect that caused his esophagus to be divided into two parts that did not connect. Talented surgeons at UNC Hospitals stitched the two parts together the day after he was born, but the resulting connection was as narrow as a toothpick. Subsequent surgeries over the past 14 months have widened the site of the connection, but for the first three months of his life, he could swallow approximately an eye-dropper full of milk at a time. He and I could never get into a rhythm with the breastfeeding. He was usually hungry, I was always exhausted, and he was not gaining the weight he needed.

Even though breastfeeding was wearing us both out, I couldn’t give myself permission to quit. I had been certain before Sam was born that I would breastfeed him successfully for as long as he needed. Of course, I had been certain that he would be born perfectly healthy, as well.

I went home from the pediatrician that day relieved but disappointed. I wanted to give Sam the very best that I could, but it wasn’t working out the way the pregnancy and parenting books had warned that it should. We began feeding him formula, and shortly afterward he had another surgery to stretch his narrow esophagus. Finally, he started chunking up and by Father’s Day, when he was about four months old, he was a fat and happy little butterball of boy.

Formula became his sole source of food, and even though he seemed to love it and thrive on it, it made me sad that the biological connection was lost. At the same time, I began to feel much more confident as a mother as he grew plumper and stronger. It turns out my first lesson as a mother was to forget everything I thought I knew, about how things should be and about what food would be best for my child.

Check out our daily themes at TriangleMom2Mom:

MONDAY: Meet!
TUESDAY: Ask!
WEDNESDAY: Eat!
THURSDAY: Play!
FRIDAY: Out!

WEEKEND: Relax!