Bye Bye Bottle

Monday August 9th, 2010 marked a large milestone in the Lewicki household.  Big Boy Benjamin said Bye Bye to Bottles.  I guess I don't know what is a "right" age, or even the correct way to be rid of bottles, but I think it was encouraged by dr.s and magazines at 12 months (1yr).  Well between people visiting us and being on the road to Colorado, TX, Northern MN, and Eastern IA 4 times, I wasn't about to change his routine when nothing else in his life was remaining "normal".  So Sunday night we got back from Dubuque (in a horrible thunder/lightning storm, and that was the last night of the bottles.(15 months)  

NAP #1 - 

Monday morning we hosted our first staff mtg of the collegiate year, and Benjamin decided not to take a nap that morning.  I had tried to give him milk in a sippy cup, but he wasn't really that interested.  So, I put him in his crib and after playing a while, he was wide awake, and let me know he wanted out.  So I let him have some quiet time in his room for a while, and then put him in his crib with a couple books.  He stayed in his crib for 45 minutes this time, but again, was not interested in sleep.  So, again, he had some quiet time in his room, until our mtg was done and then we "released the hound"  

NAP#2 - 

After a late lunch with some staff members Benjamin and I meandered into his room around 1:45 with his sippy cup, which he took a couple sips of, and the went to sleep like a champ.  YAY!

BEDTIME -

Bedtime was not a super happy time.  I tried putting him down at his regular bedtime but that didn't go well.  He wasn't very interested in his bottle, and finally I tried to just put him down.  Well he cried for a while.  I struggled with really wanting to establish a new norm, and killing our habit of getting him out of bed...For a couple months now he's been going down and then crying 5 minutes later, and I've been getting him up and letting him play a while.  He's not crabby so its not that big of a deal, but I am SOOOOO tired and my Mommy Mode shuts down, and I just can't handle it.  So with the new norm being bottless, I want it also to not involve him going down and getting back up for an hour long bed time.  Well, I gave in eventually, and he had a dirty diaper, and I felt horrible.  Then he took a tiny bit more milk, and I just rocked and sang him to sleep.  It was a horrible hour, with a fantastic ending.  If only he would have let me rock him from the beginning, I would do it every night. 

Well today we skipped our first nap.  I realized that he's at the age where he might only need one nap, and he does pretty well, without it.  And if its not essential to his good spirits, than I'm choosing not to fight that battle.  Not when I have two battles coming later in the day, that I really must win.  So good bye morning nap for now!

AFTERNOON NAP - 

He went down for his afternoon nap around 12:30.  He had done pretty well with a sippy cup of milk all morning, and then again right before his nap.  He went down like a champ, and slept for 2 1/2 hrs!

BEDTIME - 

Well, bedtime was a little rockier than his nap, but not as bad as the night before.  It started with a battle of the wills even before he had his P.J.'s on.  I got some milk for him, and was going to read him some books.  He freaked when I set the milk down and it wasn't in his hands and then freaked more when I sat down and he couldn't get on the couch by himself.  I was going to give him the milk and help him on the couch but when he started freaking, I didn't want to give in to his cry/scream.  He has recently learned "please" in sign language so I asked him to say it.  He got a very determined look on his face and kept wailing.  This kept up for a few minutes.  He was NOT going to say please, and I was NOT giving him his books or his milk without it.  Finally I asked him if he just needed to go to bed.  He kept wailing so I picked him up and went to get his jammies on.  Finally I came to the conclusion that an exuberant amount of slobber and finger sucking called for some tylenol and oral gel.  He drank a whole cup of milk but then wanted nothing to do with sleep.  He wasn't interested in rock a bye or even being in his bed room so I decided to let the pain killer take effect before sleep.  We watched T.V. for a little while and when I asked about going NiNite again, he started walking to his room.  So I followed with some more milk.  We drank about half the cup, and then started to squirm so I held him on my shoulder and scratched his back 50 times (I like counting :) ),  I laid him down, and he never let out a peep!

So I'm encouraged with our progress.   I hope tomorrow we take leaps forward and not meander backwards.  Time will tell!