1/19/17

Bye-Bye Bottles (18mos)

We may be a year late according to her doctor, but we have finally broken Alice of the bottle. 

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Unfortunately for us, Alice never took to a binkie. I say "unfortunately for us" because it has made life harder on us for sure. If Alice was whiny, she wanted a bottle to soothe herself. Because she mimics her big sister's mannerisms, she wasn't too big on self-soothing, and instead she would just stand there and scream. After about ten minutes, I'd cave in and give her a bottle. My sanity can only take so much screaming.


Cheeeeeeeeeese Face.
I blame the binkie-less 18 months on her "tight tongue." No, not a tongue tie, but a tight tongue. I was told when she was just a couple days old that she had a tight tongue. That it wasn't anything to have surgery for, because it should work itself out over time. However, the simplest of things was/is a challenge or not possible at all. Nursing, binkies, popsicles, suckers, and now certain words. It's getting better over time, but very slowly.

She loves the cheese face. Haha!
Anyway, back to dropping the bottle. 


Happy baby. <3
My childrens' doctor is big on dropping the bottle at six months of age. I wasn't ready at that time. I was very overwhelmed (as I still am), and I didn't think I could handle sleepless nights. Okay, okay, my nights were already sleepless most of the time, but I didn't want it to get worse. So, I kept her on the bottle. At nap and bedtime, and then if she was inconsolable. 


Cheese face while eating a cheeseburger.
But I started to feel guilty. She was growing fast and acting like a big girl, but yet she still had a bottle. I think the last straw was when we took her to breakfast with Santa and we forgot her sippy cup. We had a spare bottle, so we used it. Here, she was sitting on her own, eating on her own, but she had a bottle to drink out of. Yes, it wasn't the norm, but I was embarrassed. I wondered what people were thinking. So I told myself then, that when opportunity knocked, I was going to take advantage.


She does the funniest things.
So one night, I happened to see a cup with a lid for a straw in the cabinet when I got Emma her bedtime sip of water. I thought to myself, "I'm going to have Alice drink as much milk out of this as I can, and eat as many cheez-its as she can, and see if she will go to sleep with a full belly." Low and behold, she ate seven cheez-its, drank about half of the cup of milk, fussed for about 30 seconds and went to sleep in my lap. 


Loves her "Mo-Mo."
It took 5 nights, and 4 of those nights were ROUGH to say the least. But, it worked. She is bottle free! Knock on wood, she doesn't even ask for it anymore. We don't know what each night will be like, so that's kind of stressful, but all-in-all, I guess it's going pretty well.


My rough and tumble girl. <3
My baby girl is slowly turning into a big girl!

Alice's 18 Month Appt:

Weight - 29lbs 4oz (97%)
Head - 47.5cm (78%)
Height - 33in (75%)

No comments:

Post a Comment