One Small Step Away From Babyhood

Matthew will be 18 months old on the 19th of January (where in the world did the time go!?) Matthew is slow to change. It took us from 6 months old until 12 months old to get him to drink from a sippy. And he'd only drink water from the sippy. He doesn't like juice and he refused formula in the cup. I have tried a few times since his first birthday in July to get him off of the bottle. First it took us about 2 months to get him to stop the formula and start on milk. But he wouldn't drink milk cold - it had to be warmed to formula temperature (YUCK!). We got him to switch but he wouldn't drink the milk from a sippy cup. Now at just about 18 months he was only drinking warm milk from a bottle (before naps and bedtime) and only water from a sippy.

Today I put my foot down. I'm tired of the bottles. So I told Jason that today was the day we'd just give him a cup. I prepared myself for a battle of the wills with the Stubborn One. The boy usually doesn't let up until he gets what he wants. He'll scream for hours if I put him down for a nap and he thinks he doesn't need one. He'll continue until I've finally had it or until he collapses in pure exhaustion. I still win because I make him stay in there for an hour anyway.

So this morning when he was ready for his first nap I told him that we were going to use a sippy. I grabbed one of the Nuby brand cups that most resemble his bottle. It has a soft silicone spout similar to the nipple on his Avent bottle. I poured the milk, warmed it to his ridiculous temperature, and gave it to him. Now don't yell at me about the drinking of milk when going to bed. I know I know. It's bad for his teeth, yada yada yada. But one battle at a time here ladies and gents. Let's get this under control first and then we'll tackle that next. Anyway, he laid down, took a sip like usual, furrowed his brow, pulled the cup out of his mouth, looked at it and promptly handed it to me as if to say "What the F mom? Where's the bottle?" I told him that he could drink his sippy but no bottles today. I promptly turned around and left his room.

He fussed for a bit, then started to scream. I waited about 10 minutes and then went back into his room. I picked up his blankies, stuffed animals, paci and cup off of the floor. When he's upset or frustrated he'll throw everything out of the room and then scream hysterically because he doesn't have all of his stuff in his bed with him. Silly boy. Once I handed everything back to him, I told him night-nights and said he could drink from his cup if he wanted milk. Then left again.

I didn't hear from him again for 3 hours (told you he loves his naps). When he woke up I saw that he hadn't drank any of his milk. Okay that's fine. That might just make it easier for me to get him to not take any milk to bed at all. Victory number 1 for the day. No bottle. Refused to drink milk in the cup, but at least he napped. Mama - 1. Matthew - 0.

A few hours later he was ready for his short afternoon nap. Again, I grabbed the cup for milk. Again he fussed for a bit, but eventually took a nap. This time, however, he drank some of the milk. Victory number 2 for the day. No bottle. Drank some milk from a cup. Mama - 2. Matthew - 0.

After his nighttime bath I got him ready for bed. Gave him his medicine, got his blanky and paci and filled a hard-topped cup with warm milk. This would be the real test. I laid him in bed, handed him the cup. He took a sip, furrowed his brow, pulled the cup out of his mouth, looked at it, handed it to me and again gave me the "What the F" look. Again, I said, "No bottles" and handed it back to him. Then turned around and left. I never heard another peep out of him. Victory number 3. Mama - 3. Matthew - 0.

I'm interested to see tomorrow morning if he ever drank any of the milk from the cup tonight. If he didn't, I'm thinking the transition away from milk at bedtime will be much easier. I'm hoping tomorrow goes as smoothly with the cup...