Bottle Weaning...Still

And the bottle and formula weaning journey continues.

Noah is now down to one bottle left. Yes, you read that correctly. In a matter of less than a month, we have eliminated four bottles and formula.

This weekend will be the elimination of the evening bottle, which to be honest, terrifies me. It is something that needs to be done sooner than later though and we are just going to bite the bullet and ride it out. This week we have been cutting back on how much whole milk is in the evening bottle and are slowly phasing it out. After each bottle, instead of washing it, I toss it in the garbage, never to be used again!

When eliminating bottle number 4, the morning bottle, we took Noah from his crib and brought him downstairs as we normally would. Instead of sitting on the couch with Mommy or Daddy and a bottle, Noah sits in his highchair and plows through a meal fit for a grown man. He was not the least bit phased by this change and is probably happier. This morning for example, he ate 2 french toast sticks (cut up of course), scrambled eggs, blueberries, strawberries, watermelon, and whole milk.

We continue to offer warmed whole milk in his Camelbak Eddy straw cup. He still does not quite love milk in this method but he is doing just fine with it. At least he is not spitting it out anymore. He drinks water very very well.

With this new change, we had to play a little bit with snack times and figure out when he might be hungry.

This is what his new schedule looks like:

6:00-6:15 ish, wake up

6:15-6:20 ish, breakfast in his highchair

8:30 ish, snack

8:45-9:00 ish, down for nap number 1

9:30-9:45 ish, up from nap number 1

11:00, lunch

12:30, snack

1:00, nap number 2

2:30 ish, up from nap number 2

2:45-3:00, snack

4:30-5:00, dinner

6:00-6:15, bottle with 5 ounces of whole milk warmed up

6:30-6:45, in his crib for bed

The 12:30 snack is fairly simple and I just give him a pouch of applesauce or yogurt to get him through that second nap. We found that he was waking up after a half an hour or so from this second nap and was hungry. I have always heard that babies won’t wake from hunger but I beg to differ and have been so against this statement since day one. This kid loves his food and he is constantly hungry. We needed something to get him over the hump for this nap.

Some of Noah’s favorite meal or snack foods include (cut appropriately):

· Grilled cheese sandwiches

· PBJ sandwiches

· Any fruit or vegetable

· Meatballs

· French toast, pancakes, waffles

· Cooked meat (chicken, pork, turkey etc.)

· Mashed potatoes

· Cheese

· Bologna slices/other deli meats

· Toast with butter or peanut butter

· Fish sticks

· Chicken nuggets

· Pizza

· Cottage cheese

· Pasta

· Yogurt/applesauce pouches

A quick trick, if I have not mentioned it before. When giving your little one fruit that is slimy or hard to pick up, coat it with crushed cheerios and it makes it much easier to grab.

I am hoping that the next time I post, we will have eliminated that last bottle and I’ll keep you posted on how that goes.