No more bottles

We decided that Benton is old enough to stop having bottles. I figured that since we were going to be coming home from Utah we could just stop them then. He had his last bottle on the airplane home. I wasn't sure how it was going to go.

After all the traveling he was so exhausted that he fell asleep in the car on the drive home for about 30 minutes and when he got home I put him in his crib and he slept for 3 1/2 hours more! Traveling really wore him out I guess.

After a lot of playing we started his bedtime routine but this time we used a sippy cup. He wasn't too interested in the sippy cup, but he did like to have his binky. I rocked him for a little bit and sang a song trying my best to calm him down before I put him to sleep. After about 10 minutes I put him in his crib and left the room. He cried. Lots and lots. I wasn't sure if it was the lack of bottle, or because he wasn't tired enough yet since he took such a long nap. It took him a while to calm down. After 30 minutes I went in to see if he would take the sippy cup and of course he wouldn't. I gave him back his binkies that he had thrown on the floor and left the room again. After 5 minutes he stopped crying and went to sleep. He woke up a few times that night, since that is what he did while we were out of town. But I couldn't give him a bottle to calm him down so I didn't go in, he fell back asleep after a little while. 

I have to say that was I most nervous about naps though. I was afraid that he would cry for an hour and then not sleep. He never sleeps well for naps when he cries for longer than 5 minutes. When nap time came we went to his room and after a few minutes of rocking and reading a book I put him down and he went to sleep without a peep! Success! Nap #1 went well. When nap #2 came around (he switches between 1 nap and 2, I never know if it is a 1 or 2 nap day. I wish the transition was a little quicker) he went to sleep after 3 minutes of crying. Success!

Now came bedtime. Was it going to take forever like last time? Nope, he went right down. Awesome! I was starting to think it was going to work without any problems. Yesterday went great, he always fell right asleep without any crying. And he starting drinking more milk from his sippy cup. 

Then the morning came. I never thought that the morning would be the worst part. I got in the habit of giving him a bottle of juice every morning and surprisingly that is the thing he missed the most! He wakes up and cries. When I go to his room he doesn't want to get out because he knows he will have to leave his binky behind and there is no bottle waiting for him. A sippy cup is out of the question. But after a few different tries I found that a sippy with some crackers might be a good substitute for his morning bottle. 

In the end, the transition hasn't been that bad. I am so glad that he figured out how to fall asleep by himself a while ago, I think that helped a lot. Benton is becoming such a big kid, it is fun to see what he can do.