Bottle to Sippy Cup Transition

Next transition - bottle to sippy cup.  Oh boy. No more bottles. Yikes.  And I must admit, I was kinda sad about it!  I've looked forward to giving Molly Anne her bottles for a year and then bam, no more bottles! 

Her doctor told us at six months to give her a sippy cup of water with every meal starting then.  We have been doing this and Molly Anne loves her sippy cup.  I do think this is because we started so early. Thank you Dr. T!

We used this sippy cup as the first we gave her. It's by Nuby and comes with a nipple top and a spout top.  We've always just used the spout type top so she would get used to it. 

Then someone told me it wasn't a real sippy cup and she needed to drink out of a real one.  Ha!  So enter Tervis Tumblers or the toss and go.  Tervis ones are the fancy ones (that leak a lot if you turn them over - we have experience in this ha!) and toss and go are easy and practical.  

So this is how it went down:

First, we had already transitioned from formula to milk so Molly Anne had had 10 days of regular organic whole milk.  Her stomach was used to it.  

The week of July 5th, Ms. Becky started giving her a Toss and Go Cup full of milk (about 6-8 ounces, her bottles all used to be 7 ounces).  She gave it to her at about 11:30am (same time as her old day time bottle) and she'd drink about half before her lunch.  She was extra thirsty because she hadn't had anything in a couple of hours.  Then Becky gave her lunch and let her eat and she was extra thirsty again and then gave her the rest.  It got her used to drinking milk with her lunch!  Becky did it for that week and by the following week, she was finishing her milk with her lunch every day.

At this same time, she was still getting her morning and evening bottles of organic whole milk.  

I polled the MICIT girls on Facebook and half said take the other two bottles away one by one and half said go cold turkey!  I  waited until Molly Anne's pediatrician appointment on Friday, July 15th because I basically think her Doctor is the Queen and knows ALL.  Because she does.  I asked her opinion - she said it doesn't matter.  Oh did I mention that her Doc just wanted bottles gone by 15 months, unless she's obsessed with bottles then it gets taken away earlier.  Molly Anne is obsessed so guess what - bottles must be gone ASAP or it would just get harder.  I'm so mean.  Tough love y'all!!!

That Friday night after her horrible shots, she had her last bottle.  EVER.  Ahhhhhh.  Kevin and I had a couple drinks with dinner.  The drinks weren't on purpose (it was Friday for heavensake!) but I thankfully wasn't overly emotional about it.  I tried not to think about it all too much.  

Saturday morning - sippy cup of milk!!!  And why not just start the hard way - toss and go cup it was!  No need for the transitional cup she was used to.  I wanted Molly Anne to learn fast!  Plus, she had already proven she could drink a whole cup of milk out of it anyway (THANK YOU MS. BECKY!).  

I set it out a few minutes before I gave it to her to let it get a little more to room temp and let me be honest - it didn't go wonderfully.  She only had about 1/3 of a cup.  But y'all I was doing it wrong - I was still trying to have "this time" with her and give her her milk in the rocker in her room.  I needed to cool it and give her milk while she sat up like a big girl and with her breakfast!  This would be our new routine, whether I like it or not!  (Side note: on weekday mornings when she goes to Ms. Becky's I only give her 1/2 cup milk and a few cheerios.  Becky gives her the rest of the milk and breakfast)

Dinner was going to be tricky because a bottle is part of her bedtime routine and had been for a year!  It was gonna be on if this affected her sleep because Molly Anne needs her sleep (and so does her selfish mother!).  You can't say I'm not honest on here.  Anyway, guess what?  She had milk with her dinner and then I saved the rest for before bed.  And she slept regular!  And has every night since.  Now we just have an extra step of "brushing her teeth" after the milk and before bed.  Don't want her teeth to rot!

Then a few days later (by the middle of last week) we eliminated the couple ounces of milk at bedtime.  It really needs to just be with her dinner.  Our new routine is bath, brush teeth, book, bed.  And if she wants a water then that's fine.  So far, mostly so good.  

Real life - there was a lot of swatting the sippy cup away the first weekend.  A little bit of chaos when she thought she was getting a bottle and didn't.  But it really wasn't terrible and she is getting better every day.  It's only been 10 days but I think she knows that bottles are history.  They're upstairs to be put in the attic so she doesn't see them.  No more bottles!  

My best advice is make the transition, make it fast and hold yourself back from reverting back to bottles.  It'll be better in the long run.  

Random notes:

1.  Our doc suggested 20-24 ounces of milk a day but do what your doc says.

2.  I love Ms. Becky and MA's doc for their wealth of knowledge and for telling me I'm only borderline insane for counting ounces and being crazy about this whole thing.

3.  I'm thankful to have been in town and not traveling for work when all of this went on!

Whoop whoop!!!!!!!!!  Overall she did really well and I'm so thankful!  This was just our experience so you gotta do what works for you.  I'm no doc or professional so ask make your own decision!