Kiss The Fiddler

Ramblings, moments of humor, random thoughts, experiences, insights, simple wisdom, and whatever else I feel like sharing.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Nixing the Nighttime Nunnies

Luken is 18 months old. He still takes a bottle. At bedtime. And during the night at least once. Sometimes twice. That is ridiculous. It's bad for him. It's bad for his sleep cycle. It's bad for his teeth. It's not a dependency that I want to continue.

It's bad for me too. It's bad for my sleep. It's bad for Kara's sleep. It increases our stress. We get run down and irritable. We get resentful. I feel guilty when I give him a bottle because I know it's not good for him.

So we are nixing the night bottles. He won't get a bottle during the night. Period.

And so I'm awake now, at 1:40 in the morning because my sweet baby is screaming for the bottle I'm not going to give him. I feel guilty. I hurt for him. I want to take away his distress. Some things about being a mom are hard. I want to do what's best for him. Sometimes that is hard.

Once we've successfully cut out all nighttime bottles, we'll discontinue the bedtime bottle. We'll offer him milk in a cup with his peanut butter sandwich. Then we'll brush teeth and read a book and have a cuddle. After book and a cuddle, he will go to bed.

This is hard but I know it needs to happen. Give me strength.

HBK

2 comments:

Larkin Kavanaugh said...

yup, it is hard. mac was a beast to wean from night bottles too. good luck! you will be so glad when it is done and you will know you did the right thing

daye said...

I am struggling with the idea of weaning Willow from her boobies. She only nurses twice a day but she loves them. We brush her teeth afterwards and then she goes to sleep.

I'm not sure it's right to wean her but I also don't feel I have a choice. It's nice too read positive stories like yours to help me in my decision, which I still haven't made yet.