Little Lykes: Bye Bye Bottles

As we began our bedtime routine on Tuesday night I filled Stella's bottle with her milk as Rick and I usually do. One of us usually changes her into a dry diaper for the night as the other prepares the milk. good team work :) Let me add that this nighttime bottle is the only bottle that she gets throughout the day; all other milk is drank from a cup. Anyway, earlier that day I took apart both of her bottles (each bottle consists of 5 actual parts to clean) and gave them a thorough cleaning. Not sure if I punctured something or screwed something up with the bottles, but as Stella was drinking her milk she kept saying the bottle was leaking...in fact the problem wasn't that the bottle was leaking, the milk simply wasn't coming out when she sucked. I was baffled. I tried both bottles and mixed and matched all the pieces to see if we could find a combination that worked. She actually ended up not finishing all of her milk, I would guess because of the distraction from stopping every 30 seconds to say "it leaked" and walking like a big girl right up to her bed. The next morning I nearly fell over when she saw me washing her bottles again and began talking about how they leaked and were broke....my wheels started turning and a light bulb went off!

I told her she was right, that they did break! I stopped washing them and I began to explain to her that bottles are for babies anyway and that she is a big girl. I asked her to put the broken bottles in the garbage. I also told her that after she threw them in the garbage we would go to babies r' us so she could pick out her big girl cups for her milk at night night time. I kept reminding her all the way to the store where we were going, and what we were going for. We talked more about how she is a big girl now and Ricky is going to the the baby so he will drink from a bottle.

The amount of sippy cups in the cup aisle at Babies r' Us is just insane. From the kinds of spouts, to handles or no handles, to designs and colors, to insulated or not insulated, leak proof or not leak proof...one could stand there all day comparing cups. We have tried so many different cups with her; some she has taken a liking too and others she simply refused. With her bottles already being in the garbage, I felt I had to choose the right cup. talk about pressure! Rick and I know that this is going to the the toughest bottle to break- when she gets tired she goes right to the spot we keep them in and asks for it. As we pour her milk and she watches us, Rick pointed out to me one night and I was hysterical when I saw what he was talking about, her mouth begins to move in a sort of sucking motion. This nighttime bottle is such a comfort thing for her and isn't so much about the milk.

off to babies r' us for our big girl cups...