Sunday, May 1, 2011

Another milestone

Charleigh will be 17 months old tomorrow. So I knew that it was well past the time when she should have given up the bottle. Even though she has only been getting one only at night for quite a few weeks now, I knew the night time one would be the hardest for her to let go of. It surprised me how dependent she had become on the bottle for sleep time because for the first 10 months she was almost exclusively breastfed and pretty much rejected any and all bottles. (we bougtht several different kinds). But as it was, she had come to know that when one of us came in with the bottle after stories it was going to be time to go to sleep. I realize this is a big milestone for many babies/toddlers. I had spent the first 10 months of her life thinking that it wouldn't be a challenge for us since she was so resistant to even taking a bottle. Unfortunately once she started biting me and seemed unable to figure out a way to breastfeed without biting she quickly adapted to a bottle. And so the trouble began.
As I sit here, I'm waiting the negotiated 10 mins before I go in and try to console her. She's crying...mostly the " I want someone to come in here with what I want" cry, but it's obviously fake and forced. It still breaks my heart. Last night was the first night of changing the bottle out for a sippy cup. She drinks the sippy cup no problem while being read her story but wants no part of it coming into her room with her. Yesterday had went very smoothly, but yesterday she had been what we call "just tired enough" to want to sleep more than arguing for a bottle. There are times when she's not quite ready for bed and there are the times when she's overly tired. Both of which make for a difficult bedtime.
I should have prefaced this whole posting with the fact that she's never been a great sleeper. She's always been what they call a " high need baby" and needed one or two or three "sleep crutches" to help her get to sleep. Slowly but surely we've slowly broken her of each one. She was also the child who was up every 2-3 hours without fail until about the 10 month mark. (Here's to hoping that 2.0 is much less needy in that department).
I know in a couple weeks this will be yet another milestone that I read over when I'm updating her baby book. But tonight it seems like such a tough thing for such a little person to go though. :-(
Let me just say how happy, elated and thrilled I am that she NEVER took to a pacifier!!
That's one milestone we don't have to worry about!

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