No more bottles

Three years ago, as I was weaning Little Dude from breast-feeding, I did something that I thought was ok, but my pediatrician and husband disagreed.  I introduced a bottle. Little Dude was obsessed with my breasts for one week shy of 13 months. He would pull my shirt down in music class just to take a drink and would use my breasts as a pacifier during the night. Giving him a sippy cup after breast-feeding for so long made no sense to me. They are hard and not comforting at all. So I bought bottles that mimicked the breast-feeding feeling. And Little Dude became obsessed. Obsessed.

Comotomo bottles

At around 2 years old, we started to talk about getting rid of the bottles with him. We talked about other little babies who might need them and he wouldn’t as he’s a big boy. But then I got sick and getting rid of his bottles were the last thing I needed to worry about.

My So-Called Mommy Life comotomo bottles

Now with Little Dude going to school in September, tackling the bottle was something that I knew I needed to do. With Little Dude being very interested in Lego, I knew what I had to do! Sometimes, I have good ideas. Sometimes, I have great ideas and then other times I have brilliant ideas. And this was one of those brilliant ideas! I made up a story about his bottles, the toy store and LEGO. I told him that the toy store does a trade-in program. You bring your old bottles, and trade them in for a LEGO kit of your choice.

He was on-board, or so we thought……….

A few weeks ago, after prepping him for months, I thought the day had come where we would be trading in his bottles. We talked about it. He said yes, and then when he went to nap he had a fit and started to cry. And cry. And cry. He wasn’t ready yet to give up his bottles.

We continued to prep him and remind him that he was a big boy. And over the past few weeks, he stopped drinking milk from his bottle on his own terms. They were in the cupboards where he could see him yet he didn’t ask for them.

On Saturday, after weeks of him not drinking from his bottles, I asked him if he was ready to trade them in. And he said “Yes”. I kind of expected him to say yes, but didn’t expect him to follow through with it. But I let him pull them out of the cupboard, I let him put them in the bag, and then off to the mall we went to trade them in.

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When we got to the toy store he eagerly ran to the LEGO section to look for a specific set he wanted. When he found it he told me he was ready to trade his bottles in. So to the cash we went. He handed over the bag  proudly to a cashier who was confused but when I told her that he was trading in his bottles for LEGO she got it and was so awesome.

After everything, getting rid of his bottles was harder on me then it was on him. I don’t know it I will have that third kid that I thought I would and getting rid of all these baby things is hard. I feel that getting rid of his bottles is one step closer to closing the baby-chapter that I’m not ready to close.

And as Little Dude so proudly handed over his bottles, my heart-strings were pulled. I wanted so badly to ask for the bag back. But, instead I took a picture of the bottles before leaving home, but on a smile and told him how proud I was of him.

Comments

  1. Tamar says:

    I totally feel you! S just gave up her lovey after 4.5 years. I knew she would at some point but I was so sad when it actually happened. I rescued lambda from the mailbox as soon as she left for school 🙂

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