dropped.....in a good way!

Being the first time mother that I am, I had to google "How to wean a baby off bottles". Go ahead and have yourself a little chuckle because it is funny. Who does that, seriously? Aren't mothers just supposed to know how to do all baby related things? I'm sure back in the good ol' days mamas just knew right? Well, I'm glad that I'm a mom in the age of the internet. I don't think I could live without google!

Many different ideas about weaning a baby from a bottle popped up. And after looking at them, I decided to go with traditional weaning...taking away one bottle every few days until there are no more! This idea worked when we stopped breastfeeding, so I thought we'd give it a try with bottles too. (One of the ideas was to just quit bottles cold-turkey, but I don't think I could have dealt with the screaming for a bottle for a few days.)

Last Monday I dropped Presley's 4 pm bottle...as in got rid of it. She was still drinking 4 bottles a day then. She ate more dinner that night than I had ever seen her eat. I thought maybe it was just a coincidence that one time. But consistently she was eating more. So, Saturday I attempted to drop the 11 am bottle. We had a busy day that day and by 3 pm Presley was having a major meltdown. We were in JoAnn's Fabric store and when I got out the bottle and started shaking it, she went crazy! She lifted her arms high and started squealing really loudly! I guess she wanted that bottle!

Sunday and yesterday, I stuck to my guns and we only did a morning and bedtime bottle. I have been offering her snacks and her sippy cup more frequently in hopes that her tummy won't miss those bottles. She has her moments of mini-meltdowns, but overall she is doing good with the changes. I'm proud of her!

I bought some whole milk yesterday at the grocery store so we can start mixing it in with her formula. Oh, I almost forgot. I also bought the "next step" formula the last time I bought formula because of how much cheaper it was. $18 vs $25 for regular formula. The label says it's for 9-24 mo olds who eat solid foods. Well, Presley fits into that category, so I decided to give it a try. So far, so good!

So, next is to transition entirely to drinking milk out of a sippy cup. I know that the morning and bedtime bottles are the hardest to lose, the latter being extremely difficult to drop. Because it's comfort for them. Wish us luck! ;)