I feel like the only person on Earth with a bottle-addicted toddler. Of course it’s all in my head, you probably have/had one, too. Or at least you can pretend you did to make me feel better.
Yeah yeah, she’s only 16 months old, last month you all told me not to panic and to try again later. But I started panicking about my little girl with a baba at her Baba Bat Mitzvah and I knew I had to try again.
Alexa drinks water out of a cup, but still not milk. She has fits about her freaking bottles – there are times when she refuses to get up off the floor until she sees a frantic Mommy filling up her baba. But I refuse to be a pushover just because she’s cute. In the past couple of weeks, her comprehension and communication has soared to new heights, even though the words are still stuck somewhere in her head. It made sense to try again. I also realized that by delaying this, I’m just setting myself up for a worse addiction as time goes on. (Did I ever mention that I introduced the paci to Alexa at 6 months after her not caring about it at all? And now she hops in the crib and searches for it like she’s digging for gold? Yup, I’m a moron.) That aside, it’s either a scream-fest now or later. And since Alexa is getting three molars at once and we’re up in the middle of the night now anyway, it’s a great time to add to the unpleasantness.
Sunday night, I took all of the nipples off of the bottles, put them in a drawer and replaced them with yellow Born Free sippy cup tops. Basically, it’s still the bottle on the bottom, just with a different top. This is a great ploy by Born Free to make parents feel like they’re taking some big step when really they are doing nothing.
This is what our big girl baba looks like.
Not impressed? Me, either.
But we made a big deal about it and I’m not taking those nipples out of the drawer – ever. She drank from it tonight before bed. A bit tentatively, but she drank some.
Night #1 was a toss-up. I can’t tell if she took almost two hours to fall asleep because she had three blood-lined molars busting through or because she hates me.
The following nights went smoothly. Now I only give her the “big girl baba” first thing in the morning and last thing at night with straw cups during the day, so today I actually told my friend that Lexi doesn’t drink out of a bottle anymore. I know it’s a lie and I told her the bottom half is still the bottle but it makes me feel better that I took a baby step for her.
She’s freaking cute with that bottle. If she can be my baby a little longer, I won’t mind.
