Got Milk?

I tried a variety of cups.













I tried a variety of milks.













Next month I have to leave Cedric for a few days. Because of this I've started weening him from nursing this month. He was only nursing three times a day, so I first dropped the middle feeding and started substituting a 6oz sippy cup of milk. He has never taken a bottle since he was first born and every time anyone tried he acted like he didn't know what to do with it or how to suck it. Since he's already ten months old, I figure I'd just ween him to a sippy cup instead of trying to teach him how to use a bottle. Although he's familiar with a sippy cup and knows how to use one, he hadn't really drunk more than a couple ounces of water or juice at meal times out of a sippy cup. So my first dilemma was trying to get him to drink a full sippy cup. My second dilemma was what kind of milk to give him. Straight formula he just screamed at. Straight whole milk he's not old enough for. Soy milk, didn't even touch the stuff. I finally found that half whole milk and half formula was working out the best. It'd take him the whole day, but he eventually drank the full 6oz. I also tried different sippy cups. It seemed to depend on the day. Sometimes he drank better out of one than the other, but it didn't seem to matter a whole lot which sippy cup I used. Then as of a three days ago I dropped the bedtime nursing. However, I didn't know how to supplement that feeding, it was hard enough to get him to drink one sippy cup, let alone two. So I just put him to bed. Of course, his tummy wasn't use to going to bed empty, so he started waking up earlier because he was hungry. Well being the non rational person I am at 6am, I just nursed him then and he'd go back to sleep for a little longer. In the back of my mind I was thinking "I know I'm going to have to drop the morning feeding and then what will I do"? So I asked around. One friend said to add brown sugar to the milk to make it more sweet. Another friend of mine said she uses strawberry mix in her babies milk. So today I tried the half whole milk, half formula with a small amount of brown sugar (I don't have any strawberry mix) and warmed it up a bit. Didn't work. He still struggled and didn't even finish the sippy cup. Then bed time came. So I decided to try something new (of course the poor kid is so messed up anyway I didn't think it'd work). I took a bottle, poured in 4oz of straight whole milk, and 2oz of chocolate milk. I warmed it up a little. Sat in the rocking chair in his room and offered the bottle to him. Cedric took the bottle, laid in my arms and drank the entire 6oz as if he'd done it a hundred times before! I was so excited! Hopefully he sleeps longer through the night. I'll keep offering the sippy cup during the day, but now I can give him a bottle at night! He seems to do fine with whole milk and I can slowly take out the chocolate. I'm so grateful my prayers were answered and I feel comfortable now with leaving him for a few days.