No more bottles!

I am proud to say there are no more bottles in our house. We have been debating for a few months now whether or not we should do away with bottles. We have always used the born free bottles, the safe plastic kind, so it wasn't about that. If Charlie had it his way he would drink 8 bottles a day consuming close to 30 or so ounces of milk. I always knew if we got rid of the bottles he wouldn't drink as much milk. The baby won't take a bottle, something I have mixed feelings about, so we knew Charlie wouldn't have to watch the baby get bottles when he couldn't

So Monday night we washed all the bottles and Adam and Charlie packed them up. We explained to Charlie that another baby needed them (Ellie, would like some nice Born Free bottles?) and that since he was big he could use cups and sippy cups. He nodded his head and said yes, but when his daddy actually started packing them up Charlie started to cry and took a few swings at the air. That night Adam got him to sleep no problem. Our nights look like this and before you read on let me say that although it might look awful to you it works just fine for us. Yes, we are tired. Yes, there is a lot of musical beds going on. But we feel like we made the decision to be parents and we have to be ok with being a little bit tired for the next few years:

Adam usually puts Charlie to sleep in his own big boy bed. Baby Kate comes to bed with us (it is wonderful for a nursing mama like myself to sleep all night cuddled with my nursling..she sleeps great and I don't even really wake up for the nursings...)

Charlie wakes up sometime between 2-4 and Adam goes into his room and they fall asleep together quite quickly. Sometime around 5 Charlie wakes up crying for mommy, Adam comes back it our bed and sleeps with the baby and I bring a bottle to Charlie. He drinks it, falls back asleep and wakes up between 6-7. So my concern was the morning bottle.

Tuesday morning he woke up as usual at 5 and wanted me and a bottle. He ended up crying for an hour off and on, with me right there beside him. It was heart-breaking. We have never let our babes cry, we are allergic to it or something, so this was hard. He eventually looked at me and said, "oatmeal" so we got up and ate oatmeal. He didn't really ask for a bottle all day long. This morning he woke up at 4:30 crying and asking for me. I came in with a sippy cup, he cried for about half a minute, took a few chugs of milk and fell write back asleep.

So...as I mentioned in my title no more bottles and this is great for 2 reasons:

1. Charlie is consuming a lot less milk. Yesterday I think he drank a total of 4 ounces all of breast milk. I know some of you might think that is wierd or gross, but infact it is the healthiest thing I can do for Charlie. I would still be nursing him if I could, and since I am nursing the baby it is very easy to pump 5 extra ounces a day for him. Why would I give him milk from an animal when I could give him milk from his mother, right?

2. Washing bottles sucks. And I am not good at it. There are two things that are hard for me to remember to do throughout the day, one change my childrens' diapers and two wash the bottles before Charlie starts melting down and wanting one. A good day is when no one leaks through their clothes and nice clean bottles rest on the kitchen counter. Usually Charlie asks for a bottle right when I am nursing or when both babies need me and I have to desperately turn the house upside down to look for a dirty bottle then I have to make a split decision...do I let both kids cry while I use soap and hot water to wash a bottle or do I just do a quick rinse of a bottle and hope my son doesn't end up with salmonella or something wierd from old gross milk molecules. So now I don't have to wash bottles. My new challenge becomes keeping enough sippy cups on hand.

So we are once again proud of Charlie....