Change is in the air

The First Day of Spring came and went without notice for me. Isn't Spring supposed to happen overnight? I can't believe how impatient I've become with the seasons. But, alas, change is in the air. I see the change happening with our flower beds - our Tulips are starting to bud, and our Daffodils (my favorite flower) have already peeked their little yellow heads out towards the sun. And more change is happening inside our home...

No more bottles. No more formula. Only cups and sippy cups filled with whole milk only.

We're cutting the ties to Rebecca & Mary-Gail's bottles. Tony & I took the recommendation from our pediatrician & JoJo to be DONE with bottles when the girls turned one-year old (adjusted age). After our trip to St. George w/JoJo and her kids the end of February, it was no problem to cut out the bottle feedings: we went from 4 bottles per day to 1 bottle at bedtime. I believe Rebecca & Mary-Gail saw how Cy was eating and drinking and followed suit. Plus, they really didn't have a hard time not having their bottle since they were used to drinking from their sippy cups already. However, I didn't expect the reaction from Rebecca & Mary-Gail when I tried to ixny their bedtime bottle the first part of March. Whoa!!

We're talking HUGE temper tantrums. What was the deal? I knew that I'd have a few rough days/nights, but I was not prepared for the extent of the tantrums. Tony was home one night when I was getting the girls ready for bed and saw what I was dealing with. He caved - he said he was OK with giving the girls a bottle before bedtime, and at this point, so was I. But somehow I back stepped and started giving them a bottle before nap time too.

We had hopes to be completely through with bottles by the end of March. And then Rebecca was admitted to the hospital on Tuesday, March 18th. I think she only drank maximum of 18 ounces on her BEST day in the hospital, and most of that was during her 1 am, 4 am, and 7:30-8 am vital check, diaper change, suction, and breathing treatment. So guess what we're doing at home now? Yup, you guessed it. In addition to Rebecca & Mary-Gail's 7 pm bottle, Rebecca has been waking up for a bottle at 12 am, 3 am and 6 am. Just the past 2 nights she's gotten up at 1 am and 4 am. She still wakes at 6-6:30 am, but I have been holding her off until 7 am when she and Mary-Gail eat FOOD for breakfast.

Tony & I knew that too much change at once would not be good. So now instead of completely cutting off the bottle and completely being done with formula in exchange for whole milk, we've decided to incorporate whole milk in their 7 pm bottle. This is what I did when my frozen milk supply began getting low after I stopped pumping. We added formula to the breast milk, in small ratios at first, to ease in the change. Our doctors at the hospital call it "priming" because you're priming your baby's stomach and digestive system to get adjusted to the change. And just like before, eventually the girls will be solely on whole milk, just like they were eventually solely on formula. And in the meantime, we're feeding every two hours with food, snacks, sippy cups (Rebecca will drink the milk, Mary-Gail will NOT), and only one bottle at 7 pm before reading, singing, and bedtime.

We've been doing this since Easter Sunday. Our goal is to be through with bottles by the end of April. We have one month to make the change. The ultimatum is that we go cold turkey and have a miserable couple weeks, but either way, NO MORE BOTTLES.