Bottle Be Gone

Dom and I made a deal a few weeks ago. Once the end of the year came, no more bottle. He wasn’t very pleased about this deal as he absolutely loves his bottle. I was kind of dreading how it was going to go, but I figured that if I gave him some warning that it was going away, it wouldn’t be too bad. I began the weaning about three weeks before D day. In the morning I would give him his milk in a sippy cup instead of his bottle and he would just throw it right on the floor. “nooooo!” Hmm, ok, this isn’t going as well as I’d hoped. In the evening he was allowed his bottle because I didn’t want it to effect his night time routine. As the weeks went by, I kept trying to give him is sippy cup at night but he was very sure of what he wanted. “Baaabaa!!!” That broke my heart. He’d run into the kitchen and point at his bottles, crying. What am I doing to my child? I’m depriving him of nutrients, healthy supplements and his God given right to a bottle! Ok, I was being a little dramatic, but you have to understand Dom’s bond to the bottle is also somewhat shared by me.

I had always planned on breast feeding. When I was pregnant, Rob and I talked about how it would cut costs but was also the best option for our baby because it’s packed with more good stuff then formula. Everyone referred to it as “liquid gold.” Ok, no problem. I got this! Then Dom was born and guess what? My boobs failed me. I tried for hours at a time trying to get more than a drop out, but nothing. The first week of Dominic’s life I tried frantically, every hour when he was hungry, to get into the right position, have the pillow in the right place, holding his little head, just trying to get him to latch on. He wasn’t having it. I tried pumping. All day. Every day. Rob even bought me a fancy electric pump that does the work for you, but there was just nothing there. Eventually, we just had to see it for what it was. Dom was going to be a bottle baby, and that was hard for me to take. I felt like I had let him down. My body couldn’t produce what he needed. My first duty as being a Mom and failed. So we put the boobs behind us and moved on. Dom loved his bottle. He would chug down his little 2 ounces of milk like he was in a beer drinking competition. Eventually, that 2 ounces per bottle grew to 4 ounces. Then 8 ounces. Then he was holding the bottle by himself. Then he would tell me “Baba” when he wanted his bottle. And now, here we are. 18 months later and no more bottle. Dom and I went through a lot with his bottle. The bottle did what I couldn’t do, and for that, I am so grateful.

It’s been a week and yesterday we made some progress. I gave him his sippy cup during dinner, with milk instead of his usual water. He actually drank some! Hallelujah! When we went out to dinner, he drank milk out of his sippie cup without a fuss. He hasn’t asked for his “baba” so that’s promising. I just can’t believe my baby boy doesn’t use a bottle anymore! He’s growing up so fast and is a toddler, not a baby. He amazes me every single day and I love him so much!