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We did it. Mr. Prevention did it? Anyway, we survived. We’re on day 6 without a single bottle and surprisingly, I haven’t removed them from the kitchen counter and into hiding for baby #2.
Did I plan to wean Shea from the bottle? Not reeeeeeally. Not in the near future, anyway. If I’m being 100% honest, I loved that she loved her bottles. It made my little girl still seem just a bit like a baby. And in my silly mommy head, I rationalized that bottles were her “only vice” in life. Enabling mother much? Oops. I mean…
She sleeps like a dream – at night and for naps. Literally, 95% of the time we are lucky, lucky parents. She continues on her schedule of 7/7:15pm to 6/7am and naps from 12/12:30 to 2/3pm, sometimes later.
She doesn’t suck her thumb or use a pacifier. She sucked her thumb in the very early months, but dropped it before we could ever really call it a habit.
She isn’t attached to any certain stuffed animal or blanket. When we left the house, we needed a bottle above anything else.
…And, she’s only 17 months. I figured we had time to shake this habit, even though our pediatrician and parenting resources recommended stopping bottles closer to 12 months. I mean, what do THEY know anyway? 
But when Mr. Prevention offered to get up with Shea last Sunday morning, I didn’t turn down the offer. I wasn’t needing or particularly wanting more sleep (thank you, early bedtime for mommy!), but I was happy to spend that quiet time, alone, reading my Kindle in bed.
When I rolled out of bed an hour and a half later, I was quickly met with Mr. Prevention sharing that Shea had not had a bottle (of course he spelled b-o-t-t-l-e so that it didn’t send her into a complete meltdown) that morning. He was cutting her off cold turkey, he informed me. That day continued on and when offered milk in a sippy, she would shove the sippy right back at us…and cry/fuss a bit. She was NOT interested despite being offered milk in a sippy cup many, many times over the past week.
So, we didn’t wean from 20 ounces a day of unsweetened almond milk (15 oz) and whole cow’s milk (5 oz), it was just gone from her diet overnight and was not fully being replaced in her diet with water. I figured we were headed to very bad places with constipation and trouble sleeping, but we emerged nearly unscathed.
On day 6, she doesn’t even look for the bottle first thing in the morning. Rather than a bottle before bed with her books, we just read our few books and head to the crib. It hasn’t been nearly as difficult as I was anticipating and as I told my husband, I am the one missing her bottles…her little sliver of baby-like behavior. Sigh. This is silly, I know. And nothing I could’ve ever related to pre-mommyhood.
But, whew. That one is past us.
Any transitions that have been (emotionally) difficult for you, as a parent?
Be well,
from Prevention RD http://preventionrd.com/2016/03/family-friday-vol-12-kicking-the-bottle/
via Heart Based Marketing
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