The Last Bottle

The last bottles before I put them away for good.  (sigh)

Since T turned one in October, I have had it in the back of my mind that he should be weaned from the bottle to a sippy cup.  I have talked it over with just about everyone I know and each person had a different way that they weaned their children.  I decided that it would be something I could do over Christmas break, so I set that goal and enjoyed the nightly snuggles and bottle feedings that both Andy & I did with T.  (He had been down to just a bottle before naptime and nighttime for several weeks after his birthday since he began really eating and loving table food.)

 There was just one glitch in my plan, and that is that T continues to be lactose intolerant (or lactose sensitive according to the pediatrician).  To prepare for the switch from bottle to cup, we talked to our pediatrician and tried T on soy milk.  It was a no-go, he clearly didn't like it. We tried vanilla soymilk.  Nope.  We tried goat's milk.  Still a big no.  We bought several kinds of sippy cups and few more brands of soymilk and watched to see if he liked one more than the other.  He would happily drink water from a sippy, but refused milk of any kind.  I was getting a little nervous and worried that he wouldn't get the vitamins and nutrition that he needed, and that he might need a bottle for forever.  Although I wouldn't mind the latter if it wouldn't be weird if he was in fifth grade and still on a bottle.  :)

As Christmas break approached, I kept my goal in mind and found myself tenderhearted over the last few nights that we would have our nightly routine together.  I feared that he would be upset and unhappy, I knew that I would be sad too to be done with the bottle.  As it turned out, T got an ear infection the day after Christmas, and we just couldn't bear to try to wean him when he was already not feeling well.  He's a great sick kid during the day, but at night when his ear must be hurting when he lays down, he can be grumpy. So we treated the ear infection with antibiotics, and kept on with our routine thoughout Christmas break. 

T's ear healed, school started back up and we were back into our routine, bottle and all. Again, I felt like I needed to wean him, but wasn't sure when would be the best time.  I didn't want to torture T or the sweet family members who come to watch the kids during the day.  We kept on and I thought about switching him during Spring Break.

So, that's the back story.  Here's how it all went down:

 January 21, 2013 was a momentous day around here... it was the first day that T didn't have a bottle all day!  As luck would have it, T got a stomach bug on the night of Jan 20, and puked in the middle of the night while he was sleeping.  We heard him, gave him a bath, and cleaned up his bed. only to have it all happen again a couple more times.  I called the doctor and was told how to treat him, including avoiding milk/bottle until he could keep down teaspoons of Pedialite.  We spent the day focusing on his health, following doctor's orders and trying to keep K away from T!  He slept a lot that day and went to bed without a bottle without complaint.  The next day we tried to give him a sippy cup with vanilla soymilk and he took it.

And that's it.  We never looked back!  There was no fussing from him for a bottle, and as the days and weeks have passed he has downed several gallons of vanilla soymilk happily. 

 It makes me nervous and sad to think that we won't ever have a nighttime snuggle like we have had since the day he arrived.  Andy & I have taken lots of turns making and giving these bottles to our little boy, and he's growing up so very fast.  I think that this transition may have been much more traumatic on me than him, but that's okay.  I only want him to be happy.  We are so blessed that he's healthy, growing up and is such a happy and handsome little boy.

 And as it turns out, he likes to snuggle with us with a sippy cup at night.