Weaning. A word that I have a lot of experience with this past year. First we weaned Alexa from sleeping in our room to her crib, around 3.5/4 months….pretty easy. Next, I needed to wean Alexa from nursing throughout the night to STTN, which was around 6 months. This was much harder than the 1st wean to her crib, but not impossible. She had it down in about a week. Another wean was between 8-10 months from nursing 2x day to 100% formula…SIMPLE as PIE! This next phase seems to be MUCH more difficult!
Part 1- Milk
On Saturday I gave Alexa her 1st taste of milk. We were at Meijer and I bought a pint of Vitamin D and a straw. I opened it up while we were shopping and she took a huge gulp, and seemed to like it. She didn’t make a sour face, like I have read lots of babies do, and she went back for more. I was excited, it seemed like this would be a piece of cake (no pun intended with the BIG birthday weekend). That day and for the rest of the weekend she had milk with her meals and did great. I was relieved that we wouldn’t have any issues transitioning her from formula to milk. Part 1 seemed like it would be an easy transition.
Part 2- No more bottles
Alexa has been drinking from sippy cup for about 6 months now. It took her awhile to get the hang of it at first, but for the past 4 months she chugs water out of any sippy like a champ! She has been only getting bottles at night for about 2 weeks, and has done great with the transition from 2 bottles down to 1. She continued to STTN and was staying hydrated throughout the day, while continuing to grow. Upon approaching the 1 year milestone, I started having a lot of questions about what we do next. Do we put milk in her bottle? Does she just quit bottles cold turkey? Do we mix formula with milk? How much milk does she need a day? I thought I had a plan, I had begun weaning her from 2 bottles a day down to 1, but I guess I didn’t think about what happens now. After calling her peds office, I was told that if she likes milk, drinks it without a fuss, she should be weaned to milk cold turkey. DONE. Next was the bottles. I was told that most babies are weaned from the bottle between 13 and 16 months and that if I thought she was ready, drinks well of a sippy, we could try it. Also, she needs MUCH less milk than formula, now that she is a toddler the bulk of her nutrition is from food and the milk’s purpose isn’t to soothe (like a bottle) but to provide nutrition and offer another option other than water.
We discussed how the biggest hurdle at this point is breaking her routine. For the last 12 months every night (give or take) she has had bath, bottle, bed, beginning at 7pm. I am proud of the fact that we had a routine that really worked for us. Like clockwork Alexa begins to rub her eyes just about 6:45, Ian gives her a bath and gets her in her jammies. I come up with a bottle, feed her and put her down. She has always gone down easy. So now the big challenge is removing the bottle from her nighttime routine. The nurse suggested we try the sippy cup and then add a new task, brushing her teeth. This is something that will be part of her new routine every night for the rest of her life and it’s never too early to start. It sounded like a good idea, we would do bath, pushing that time back to 7:30, and then she would get a sippy cup with milk while we read her a story, another change to her routine. After story time (2-3 books) and her milk, we brush her teeth- with a washcloth and water, and put her to bed.
Last night Alexa and I attempted this new routine and it went pretty smoothly. She cuddled in my lap while I read her a couple books. She only drank about an oz or 2 of milk, but seemed full. We went into the bathroom, I used a wash rag with some water on it and rubbed her little teeth, she didnt love it, but didnt hate it either and then I put her down. She rolled over and went RIGHT down. Success?! I couldn’t believe it!!!
I wish it was that easy!!! Around 1:30am, I started to hear her on the monitor. She would fuss, and then lay back down and seemed like she would go back to sleep. Well, the dogs were now up and wanted to go out…around 2am I let the dogs out and Alexa started screaming! I went upstairs, rocked her, gave her some milk and tried to put her back down once she was calm and was laughing at the dogs and playing. Once back in her crib she was NOT happy. She did not want to sleep and just fussed in her bed. I brought her down to our bed and tried to sleep with her there. She was laughing, crawling all over me, playing with the dogs…this girl was NOT ready for bed. It was around 3am at this point. I took her back upstairs, made her a bottle and she drank 7 of the 8oz. She was a limp little noodle and I put her back in her bed…she slept till after 8!!!
Needless to say, night one was NOT a success! I will try again tonight, and will try warming her milk- some advice I got from another mom...why didnt I think of that? I know its only been ONE night, and these things take time, but mama needs her sleep!! I am hopefull that after a few days, she will have this new routine down. Who knows, maybe last night was just a fluke, she has been a little party girl the past few nights, maybe she didn't want her birthday weekend to end! :)
In the meantime, I will take all tips I can get on weaning from a bottle at nighttime.
Thanks friends,
Happy Big Brother Wednesday!!
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