The bane of my existence Part II

On Lola's 1 yr birthday. Obviously we didn't cut her off the bottle that day...

More recently but same situation....bottle still in hand and she's loving it!

As you know, a while back I wrote a blog about the bottle being the bane of my existence. I mentioned that pretty much everyone I knew cut their babies off right when they turned 1 yrs old. And, of course, the doctors recommend this too. Well, I thought about this a lot and made an executive decision to ween Lola off slowly but surely and if she was still taking the bottle at 15 months, then I would cut her off.

I can't really say this was a good or bad decision but I will say I think it's going to be much harder to cut her off at 15 months vs. 12 months. Why??? As you can see from the pics above, she LOVES her bottle. Luckily she also LOVES her toothbrush (see pic with bottle in one hand and toothbrush in the other...perfect!) so I'm hoping they offset each other. It should be noted that Lola has not always been attached to the bottle. As a matter of fact, at 12 months I don't think she was attached but she is now. We only give her the bottle around bedtime (or "nite, nite" time as Lo puts it). But, during these times, she basically cries out for the bottle and wants it BAD! She has also become quite picky as to how she wants the bottle fixed and the temperature/freshness of the milk. It's funny b/c she is not like this with the sippy cup. She'll drink milk that's been sitting out for 4 hours out of the sippy cup but it has to be warm and the perfect temperature out of the bottle. These babies are very funny and quirky....things like this never cease to amaze me.

So, anyway, we're still basically at square one. I keep thinking "I'm going to start weening her this week" but then something comes up...like a move or new school, etc. I'm already a little worried about her and feel she has so much going on that I don't want to take one more thing away from her right now. As usual, we would take any advice on the best way to handle this weening process....I'm fairly certain most of you will say "cut her off" or "don't worry about it". That's what I've seemed to get pretty consistently across the board.

I mentioned above that I'm a little worried about Lola. "They say" a move is a lot harder on babies than you realize. I've noticed she's been acting a little different and can tell she is off just a bit. When she saw our old house after everything had been moved out, she went from room to room and said "Uh Oh, Uh Oh, Uh Oh". This made us a little sad b/c we know she doesn't really understand what's going on. I know it's also been hard for her to leave her old school, friends and teachers. She's now starting in a new school and it's definitely been an adjustment. When we drop her off she cries and reaches her arms out while shouting "mama". It is the hardest thing to walk away from her when she feels this way but I have to....I too cry as soon as I get to the car b/c it saddens me so. Once again, I just wonder how long it takes to get through this phase. Despite the morning drop-off tears, Lola actually seems to like her new school a lot but I think she still lacks that sense of security which will come with time. Miss Gabby, the lead teacher, is doing a great job trying to make Lola feel comfortable and I can tell she is giving her special attention right now.

We're also trying our hardest to give Lola that sense of security at home too but unfortunately Clay has been working insane hours so he hasn't been here much and I feel like I'm an emotional wreck so we're probably not doing as good of a job as we should. Hopefully everything will settle down soon. I have been trying to pick Lola up a little early and we've been going on walks, playing outside, etc. It's all tough but we'll get through this like everything else....I've learned you just take it one step at a time.