Elliot is 15 months old. His doctors have been telling me he was supposed to be weaned off the bottle months ago, but... HOW?
Right now, he gets 2-3 bottles a day. He used to get 8 ounces, but I've cut him back to 6- and will probably continue giving him less over time to help him wean? One before each nap {sometimes he only takes one nap} and one before bed. No, I don't give it to him in his crib or anything. He never walks/crawls around with it, either- and he doesn't get anything other than milk in his bottles. He drinks water out of his straw sippy throughout the day... and has had milk in it before, too.
At naptime, I put some soft music on, and we sit on the couch together, with him in my lap, while I give him his bottle. Once he's finished {he doesn't usually finish the whole thing these days}, I stand up and rock/bounce him for a few minutes before bringing him up to his room and laying him down. His naps are kind of all over the place right now. Until recently, he always napped at 10 and 3. Well, lately his morning nap has been later- 11-12ish. Then he gets SUPER tired between 4 and 5, like, he is practically falling asleep/having meltdowns about the smallest things. So sometimes he will take a nap around then, but if we're busy/out he won't. If he only had the one nap a day, he would literally be ready for bed by 6. And that's just not practical for us, since my husband doesn't get home until after 5.
At bedtime, he gets his bath between 7-7:30, then he gets all cozy in his pajamas and we head back downstairs for his bottle. For whatever reason, bedtime is easier. I don't really rock or bounce him much- I can lay him down sleepily awake and he usually won't even cry- he just falls asleep on his own. Naps, on the other hand, are a different story. I sometimes spend a long time rocking/bouncing him before I can put him in his crib... and no matter how tired he is, he starts crying the second I lay him down.
Whenever he is tired, he starts asking for his "baba." It's the only word he says, and he sounds sooo cute and sweet when he asks for it. The bottle is his way of transitioning from being a wide awake wild child to a sleepy little one. I've tried on multiple occasions just rocking him without the bottle, and he usually won't even lay still. He squirms and looks at me like I'm a crazy woman. He just knows, when he sees the bottle, that it's time to go to sleep.
Elliot and his blankie, right after he woke up from a nap.
My plan? Elliot has recently become very attached to his blanket. Whenever he wakes up, he insists on bringing it with him and cuddling it for a few minutes before he's ready to tackle the day. I was thinking of kind of using that to my advantage. I want to get a glider for his room, because his rocking chair is cute, but NOT comfortable to rock in. Then, I was thinking of trying to just go upstairs into his room, where his lullaby music is always playing, and rocking him in my lap for awhile with his blankie in his lap. The tricky part here is that I don't want him to get dependent on being completely rocked to sleep- especially not with the new baby coming. I'd like to be able to just rock him for a few minutes, maybe even introduce reading a bedtime story, and then lay him down awake without too much drama. Sounds pretty simple, right? I don't know if it will be quite so easy, though!
So here's my question to you-
How/when did you wean from the bottle {or boob?}
Any tips? Tricks? Suggestions?
Oh, one more thing-
At what age do most people start reading bedtime stories before bed?
Some of my favorite childhood memories involve laying in bed with my parents and reading a book {or two, or three...} before bed. I've always wanted to do the same with my kids- but is it too early? It just seems like such a foreign idea right now, so far off from our current bedtime routine. We read books during the day, during playtime!
My goal is to have him completely weaned before Sully is born- so that gives me approximately 2 months. I don't want it to be too traumatic of an experience for him. And he's been sleeping GREAT at night lately- 12-13 hours straight every night... I'd like to keep it that way!
