Goodbye Old Friends

Yes, tonight Avery said goodbye to her very near and dear friends,
Mr. & Mrs. Bottle and family.

The weaning process is something we have tried several times, unsuccessfully.  It has caused me a lot of stress and worry, and has prompted me to do research online, read textbooks, and talk to many other parents, as well as the doctor.  Of course the main concern was her teeth (decay from sucking on a bottle at night, and the shape of her front teeth from having the bottle in her mouth too often.  She has not shown problematic signs of either yet, but I have seen these results on other children and I am determined to spare her from these complications). 

It is a huge weight off my shoulders to have this bittersweet milestone behind us.

To our great shock, she used the sippy cup all day today AND at bedtime without a fuss!  She is able to say "baba" and did ask for it several times during the day, but we would give her the cup instead and then redirect her attention, and it seemed to work.  She did get one last "baba" today at Lizzy's.  Lizzy had given her a sippy cup and given Madelyn (10 months) a bottle.  As soon as Lizzy turned her back, Avery took Madelyn's bottle for herself and replaced it with the sippy cup!  What a sneaky little stinker she is.

Here we are this evening, rocking to sleep with the sippy cup

(although she got distracted by the daddy and the camera):

Shortly after this picture was taken I placed her in her bed, and I watched on the monitor as she briefly searched for her water bottle (which is routinely in the corner of her crib to drink at night if she gets thirsty).  All she could find was a water sippy cup, so she gave up and went to sleep without a peep.

Josh and I had braced ourselves for a long and tumultuous night.

We are still in awe at how painless that was!