Give a Snuggie???

I had read early on when we were going through the sleep in his own room phase that introducing a comfort item could help him sleep on his own.  Fortunately we didn't really have to try any tricks just the method mentioned in my previous blog.  For some reason, I now can't remember, we decided to introduce the stuffed bear his aunt bought him.  Oh yes, now I recall, it was for naps!  Although we had his bed time routine down packed, naps were not his/our strong suit.  Needless to say, the bear took.  It was so cute to witness.  He would walk around with his bear in a choke hold pulled close to his face or carry it around in his mouth like a puppy.  That was my favorite, he would latch on to his bear's snout with is teeth and just walk around like that.  Now he calls for him "Baya" whenever he thinks about him.  We try to keep bear restricted to bed time, but some times he like bear to be involved in reading time or just plain old comfort.  But word to the wise, the attachment can become a dependency.  One day I nearly broke my neck searching for "Baya".  I was so frazzled and desperate.  It was his bed time and my son was crying for  him and I couldn't find him and we have our routine so I was even more angered by breaking it in order to find the bear.  I found it, but realized I may have created a monster.  We went on a couple of trips and forgot "Baya" and were so devastated.  He was fussy, but he didn't call for "Baya".  Again we are at the point where we will not put him in the bed without "Baya" and he will not go quietly without him.  So you have to ask yourself did you want to be in this situation just to help him get comfy with sleep.  I say it is worth it, but beware.

The Sippie Cup War........Part Deux!

The battle is finally over!  A winner has emerged and the bottle is gone!  Hooray Hurrah!!  Yes, what our wonderful children do not know is that parents are in it for the long haul.  Our commitment and dedication to getting our little one off the bottle paid off.  It seemed as if it would never happen.  He loved his bottle, and truthfully, I loved to watch him drink from the bottle.  He had this methodical, mechanical suckling that was so adorable and soothing to him, but as we all know he does not need to be on the bottle any longer.  I have to attribute it to waiting.  Everyone pushes for 12 months and makes a new mom feel pressure to reach these target dates.  As I mentioned before, I talked to veteran moms that said just wait until they are ready or that their children were not off bottle until like 18 months.  So I can say at 16 months, my son kicked the bottle.  I think what helped was that we decided to not push it until he really got familiar and comfortable with his sippie.  We probably started water out of a sippie at 12 months.  Now, don't get me wrong, we did initially try to rush the bottle and that totally back fired.  When 15 months came around we reintroduced the sippie with milk in mornings only.  He would have it as soon as he woke up when he was thirsty and desperate.  That seemed to be natural for him and hey, don't judge we had to take advantage.  After a few weeks of that we brought the sippie for his bed time bottle (bottle right before bed) and while fussing he devoured every last drop.  The second  night was a cake walk and out went the bottle.  Next is cold milk...we are almost there!!!