Rosebud loves her food and loves her routines so when it comes to the bottle, she’s been very attached to it. When Rosebud was born, we started having feeding troubles right off the bat so I had to introduce formula in the first few days of her life. She preferred the bottles since she would get more milk at a faster rate. This obviously made nursing a struggle and I pushed through for several months before we finally found a rhythm. Rosebud got bottles when I was working and nursing when I was at home. Maybe I will do another post later specifically about the feeding problems and how we got past them, but this post is about how we said Bye Bye to the Bottle for good.
I wanted to stop nursing when she turned a year old because by then I was tired of it, but Rosebud had other plans. I slowly started to cut out feedings and eventually it had stopped by 18 months. One of the ways I cut out feedings was by replacing them with bottles of milk which Rosebud liked. She got very attached to the bottles again and it simply became a substitute for nursing. This is why she was still having two bottles a day even after she turned two.
I started reducing the amount of milk in the bottles which she was totally fine with. I tried putting milk in different cups, but she would never drink it. She has been drinking water from a cup since she was six months old and more recently I’ve given her juice in a cup, but she’ll take one sip of milk and put it back on the counter telling me she doesn’t like it. I’ve tried role modeling by drinking milk with my meals, sharing my milk with her etc. I tried not allowing her to have bottles at all and only offering cups of milk, but she refuses and will go days without milk. I’ve started introducing foods with more calcium because I was worried about her not drinking her milk.
Last week, I told her that we were all done with bottles because she is a big girl and big girls drink milk out of a cup. This makes her sad and occasionally she will ask for a bottle. She was tearful when asking for one this morning, but I reminded her that she’s a big girl and doesn’t need a bottle anymore. I told her it was okay to miss her bottles, but that we could snuggle while she drinks her milk from a cup the same way we would snuggle when she drinks bottles. That seemed to help.
This past weekend I caved and bought some chocolate and strawberry sirup to flavor her milk. My mom had suggested this, but I didn’t want to do this because I thought if she wouldn’t drink plain milk, then I didn’t want her to start getting sugary replacements. I did some searching online and this strategy has seemed to work for many parents so I’m giving it a try. So far, it has worked. She has been drinking her milk and seems to like both flavors. My plan is to decrease the amount of sirup little by little until she is back to drinking plain milk again. Distraction has worked as well. If she’s busy playing, she is less likely to think of asking for a bottle.
Since we have gone a week without them, I packed them away in a box. The next thing to go is the pacifier, but I don’t want to take all her comforts away at once. My baby girl is growing up and it’s happening way too fast! It seems like yesterday when I brought her home and now she’s talking in full sentences, climbing up the huge slides on the playground and we are the beginning stages of potty training. She has a mind of her own and she knows what she is ready to do. I encourage her to take the next steps, but I also remember to let her go at her own pace. Sometimes that has meant taking a step back and trying again later. It is a learning process for both of us. What helped your toddler give up the bottle? Tell me in the comments.
This started to get old and I found myself getting frustrated at stopping every two seconds, but then I thought this is her walk and normally I’d encourage exploring and looking at the details so I started asking her about everything we were seeing and hearing. She saw leaves blowing in the wind, different decorations in people’s yards, big trees, dogs, cars driving by and kids playing. We heard wind chimes, airplanes, dogs barking, a baby crying, animals moving around in the trees and birds singing. She stopped to pick up rocks, acorns, pinecones, leaves and sticks. She wanted to put everything in her pockets. A couple of times, she even stopped to pick up trash. I’m all for picking up the trash and can’t stand it when people litter, I don’t want her doing it because of her tendency to put everything in her mouth. You never know where that comes from and what kind of germs it could be carrying. I’m always worrying about what she’s putting in her mouth and that’s one of the reasons I’m not a huge fan of outdoor time.
I love being outdoors. I love nature and getting fresh air. It’s good for both of us. Outdoor time is great for burning off energy and doing activities that Rosebud can’t do indoors. I know how important outside play is, but I get anxious about her possibly swallowing a rock, eating mouth fulls of dirt which she did today or if she tries to run off. My yard is fenced in, but there are lots of places to escape to if we go walking or if we go to the playground that is not fenced in. I know some of this will get better as she gets older and maybe I’ll enjoy outside play more. For now, I will do my best to enjoy these moments outside even if we’ve stopped for the fiftieth time while walking down our short path to the mailboxes because Rosebud is learning and appreciating the world around her.
Well, that’s not how things turned out. I’m a working mom who is often too tired when she gets home to prepare and actually do activities. Most nights, we settle for coloring with crayons and a blank notebook. We might snuggle in the chair reading a book or singing songs because that doesn’t require any extra preparation. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by working with children all day and want to zone out, but I know I can’t. My daughter is depending on me to talk to her and play with her.
This strawberry scented cupcake looks good enough to eat, but I assure you, it’s wax. I will tell you all about this wax from 
these are just a few things that make me feel my best and recharge me. The things that make you feel your best and recharge you might be totally different. What do you do for yourself that you considder a luxury?
6. You must always eat with a fork even if the food is pretend. It’s polite.
Normally when I write in my blog, I only focus on the positive and rarely ever write about something so personal, but I suppose that isn’t exactly authentic. People who know me in real life know that I’m visually impaired, but most people who I interact with online don’t. I usually dread telling people and do whatever I can to hide or minimize it. It’s because I know people will think of me differently once they know. I’m having second thoughts about posting this as I type. Anyway, I left the store today in frustration and I didn’t say anything, but there have been times where I’ve stood up to that.
While I was in the hospital after Rosebud was born, there were mostly wonderful nurses who were caring and supportive. However, there was one who was absolutely horrible. She was rough while drawing blood from my baby, she was abrupt and generally had a negative attitude. It was obvious that I made her uncomfortable and that she didn’t think I could handle caring for my newborn. I’ll mention that I had a c-section due to complications and it was impacting my ability to breastfeed. Sometimes women who have had c-sections take longer to produce milk because of hormones and the trauma to the body. Anyway, for whatever reason, Rosebud wasn’t feeding very well and like a lot of mothers, I was having trouble getting her to latch. Most of the nurses were fine with helping me with this. Rosebud and I were starting to figure it out, but it was taking time.
I want other mothers to know that yes, you can fire your nurses. I did not know that and only learned that out of desparation. Also, it’s okay to advocate for yourself. It’s hard and sometimes you don’t know if it’s worth it or not, but it usually is. It’s not okay for people to treat me like that and I wish they wouldn’t, but at times proving people wrong has been a strong motivation for me. It has pushed me hard to achieve my goals. Sometimes it’s okay and absolutely necessary to surround yourself with a protective bubble.