Bye Bye Bottles

I think we can officially say good bye to Andrew's bottles.  

He has gone 3 days without any bottles at all!

I have loved these bottles!  I got them because they were suppose
to resemble the breast the most and they had an air vent.
We got by with only three bottles for a whole year...
(of course we went to the taller bottles when he hit 6 oz
and we bought the medium flow nipples around then too,
but still only three bottles)

I know there is alot here but this is really for my own personal record.  

Also, it is nice to hear what others did when you are starting the process.

We took a little bit longer than I was expecting to get rid of his bottles, (all kids are different and parents have many different systems that work great) this is what we did & it really worked for us.  Since he turned 1 at the same time as we were moving and switching up all that he knew I didn't want to start weaning him from his bottles until at least 13 months.  He wouldn't drink straight whole milk at first so I had to mix it with his formula to get him used to the taste.  Once that was done I started decreasing the amount I gave him.  When we got to 2 oz, I knew it was time to take away his morning bottle (by that point he only had one in the morning and one at night before his bedtime routine).  

It think it wouldn't have taken so long if he wouldn't have gotten a bunch of teeth right in the middle of it all.  All of his K9 & cuspids came in just about a month ago & I didn't decrease any during those times... he wouldn't drink as much water while he was teething anyway & I didn't want to take away a comfort thing while he was hurting.

Some may say that we took too long, but I don't feel like that at all.  I don't think it held him back to go slow, I feel like it gave him confidence.  I knew that the sooner you get rid of the bottle after the first year the easier it would be, so I encouraged him, nudged him, always suggested drinking from a sippy, but I never pushed him beyond what I knew he could handle.  When we tried new things and he didn't resist, that is how I know he was ready.  If he ever had a hard time with it I knew he wasn't ready.  It gave me confidence too.  I absolutely knew we were ready to be done because we have been gradually decreasing everything & he has learned to replace it with his sippy cups as we went along.  He drinks so well from his sippy cups, taking big long drinks, I didn't fear at all whether or not he was getting enough hydration.  He never really asked for his bottles and then last week (we were down to the 1 before bed) he pushed his bottle away & went to bed fine without it.  That was his last bottle.

Being done with his bottle has really shown me that Andrew isn't a baby anymore.  Bottles are for babies and he really has graduated into a toddler.  Sniff, sniff.  Good bye baby days.

  

I really wanted to go to his 15 month well check up next week and say he was completely weaned.  I am so proud that we made that goal :)  We've already gotten rid of his binky during the day, now we've just got to get rid of his binky at night!  Any tricks that worked for you?