Please step away from the bottle

Ok, lets talk baby bottles for a moment. Cute, little, colorful, inviting and comforting.... all that good stuff. So, when we were instructed abruptly at Sam's one year doctor visit to ditch the bottle, I was rattled. I guess I always expected we would have to wean him around a year, but who the hell expected a year to come and go so fast? Not I. So when I looked at my tiny little boy, and thought of him not having a bottle all day, I thought, "I simply can't handle this I'm not ready for this. This is still my baby, Pampers, chubby baby toes and all." What is a mom-girl to do?

As usual, I hit the books, Internet and mom friends, searching for the best ways to wean the babe. Some said "just go straight from the boob to a sippy cup," (which was no longer an option at around about 6 months of age, some of us aren't blessed with enough breasts or breast milk to feed a small village or a child who is quadrupling his birth weight in a single day). I asked other www.friends who said, "oh it wasn't a problem for us we just went 'cold turkey'" Uh, seriously? They promised it was "hell on earth" for a few days, but then the baby didn't even know they ever had a bottle.

This "cold turkey" you speak of is not (in my opinion) a term to be used for anything having to do with babies. There is such a thing as scarring a child for life and we've all heard of Freud, (whack job or not) we've all known a few anal people. I for one, don't want Sam's need to constantly have a pen, fingernail, cigarette, toothpick or what have you to be as a result of me yanking his harmless baby bottle from his chubby grasp because "this is a good average age for kids to drop the bottle." (I would much rather it was because he visited Eastern Washington too much.)

So we began dropping one bottle at a time, and just a couple of months later, I am happy to say the child gets a bottle at bedtime, and even that, he isn't really into sometimes, bottles are for babies, you know. :)

It has always amazed me how the routines that seem so hard to adjust to in the first place as a first time parent, become so hard to change, and most of the time not for Sam but for us. We always, survive and create a new routines that are just as manageable and sweet as the one before.

So, with out further chatter, I introduce to you to the "morning bed." In lieu of myself or Paul sitting with Sam for a mid morning bottle and snuggle*, we invented the "morning bed." Pictured below, a little nest of sorts, stacked and fluffed pillows** and blankie, just outside the not-so-master bath, that allows Sam time time to snuggle and have a bottle-shaped-sippy-cup-thingy, mom, time to dry and "jush" and dad, time to use the restroom in peace with out Sam standing port-side, flushing the toilet every thirty seconds.

Now what will we replace the morning bed with.......hmmmm.

*(no snuggling was harmed in the making of this morning bed, all snuggle time is made up for at other less chaotic times through out the day)

**(Please excuse the fact that there are no pillow cases on the pillows, it was laundry Saturday, we do not live like fraternity boys :) Which could also explain why Sam is shirt-less! Sam does however, live like a frat boy, bottles, screaming, throwing food, and hooting unnecessarily at older baby girls passing by.)