That's how long Jackson has gone without a bottle. I'm so happy we were able to get this accomplished before his 18 month check-up! At his last check-up, his Pediatrician said he needed to be weaned by 18 months. I was relieved to hear this as I thought most recommended 12 months. I thought, yay, I can put it off for 6 more months. ☺ Little did I know how attached to it he would get and that I should have probably started trying to wean him at 12 months. Oh well, live and learn right?
At 12 months he was down to 3 bottles a day. A morning bottle when he woke up, an afternoon bottle for nap time and then a night time bottle before bed. I dreaded trying to wean him from the "ba ba" because it was a comfort to him and settled him right down for naps and bed time. I wasn't sure how we were going to break him from it.
My mom had pretty well stopped giving him the afternoon bottles recently, as he
had been falling asleep on his own on his Mickey Mouse couch in the
living room. Hey, whatever works right? (That's actually where he is
right now... asleep on his Mickey couch in the living room.) So we
really just had the morning and nighttime bottles to worry about.
I started last Saturday morning by giving him a cup of milk in place of the bottle. I even warmed the milk up for him just as I did in his bottles, however, this was not received well at first and we even caved a few of times and gave him a bottle. Especially at night time. He would shake his head no at the cup and say "ba ba". It pretty much broke my heart.
By Monday, we had pretty well broke him from the morning bottle. He was still asking for it, but had come around to the idea of a sippy cup of milk instead. (Thank goodness)
Monday night I ended up giving him a bottle, but planned to put him in his crib right afterwards instead of rocking him to sleep like I normally did. My logic was, if I can get him to fall asleep on his own in his crib, maybe he won't rely on the bottle so much to help him fall asleep. So I gave him his bottle while sitting in the rocking chair in his room, just like we did every night, but afterwards I put him in his crib and turned on a night light we have that rotates pictures on the celieng. (Its built in to his noise machine.) He enjoyed looking at the pictures and actually didn't cry at all as I snuck out of the room. I thought it was probably just a coincidence and it could never be that easy. I couldn't believe he fell asleep that night on his own with NO crying!!
So Tuesday night, I did the same thing. He did cry that night when I left the room, but by the time I had walked into the kitchen he had already stopped crying. So all in all, he cried for less than a minute! I could handle that. ☺
Wed. night we were at my MIL's house and he fell asleep on the way home, so that was an easy night without a bottle. So that was day 1 with no bottle. Thursday night we were at my parents' house and he fell asleep on the way home from there, so that was day 2 without a bottle. Friday night we played outside and went to the mall, figuring he'd wear down and fall asleep on the way home that night, but no such luck. So when we got home I made him a cup of milk and we watched an episode of Mickey Mouse clubhouse. After he drank his milk and watched his show, I took him in his room to rock him to sleep, but he just wouldn't be still, so I put him in his crib, gave him a kiss and told him I loved him and walked out of the room. He stopped crying as soon as I closed the door. ☺ So this was day 3 with no bottle and we haven't looked back since.
He's been doing so good and is now completely satisfied with a sippy cup instead of the bottle. He's going to bed fine in his crib at night, (praying that continues) and hasn't even asked for a "ba ba" the last couple of days. I packed up all the bottles today so that he doesn't see one and decide he wants one again, ha. ☺ I am so proud of Jackson and so happy I don't have to wash bottles anymore! ☺
Just one more step in the direction of toddler-hood. I can't believe how big he's getting. He's definitely not a little baby anymore. :-(
A picture I took of Jackson yesterday, on Easter, in our church lobby. He was so handsome in his new Easter Outfit. ☺ (I'll post all about our Easter weekend, throughout this week.)
