Last night was Jonah's last bedtime bottle - actually, his last bottle period. We began weaning the bottle about two weeks ago. His afternoon bottle's exit was a piece of cake and so was his morning bottle. But, we knew that saying goodbye to the bedtime bottle would not be as easy. It was sad last night when we gave him his last bottle - and at the same nerve racking, because we didn't know what tonight would be like.
So - that leads me to right now: 8:23pm on Monday. Jonah has been asleep for about 35minutes now. We did the whole bedtime routine as normal, Jonah kissed me (Cat) goodnight, and he shut the door and turned off the light. Rob said that Jonah went to drink from the
Sippy Cup and when he realized it wasn't milk (it was water) he pushed it away and tried to put it on the stand where Rob puts the bottle when he's done with it. Then Jonah motioned for his crib (wanting to go in it - which he has been doing every night for over a week). When Rob went to stand up - Jonah started to cry. Rob put him down, covered him, kissed him and said goodnight.
We then listened to him cry for 5minutes. I decided that I would go in. I walked in and said, "Jonah are you
ok"? He stopped crying and gave me a very sad face - so, I showed him his
sippy cup and said - "would you like a drink"? At which point he
bursted out in tears again. So, I picked him up and we cuddled on the chair together. As he was crying I said to him (looking in his eyes and trying not to cry myself) "Jonah, I know how hard it is to grow up. It hurts eh? It's not fun all the time and it's sad. And you have done such a good job at it Jonah. It's
ok to cry. I know how sad you are. Just let it out - mama will just hold you." I kissed him and just held him - he nestled in and stopped crying. We cuddled and I put him down. He knelt up, so I put his blanket across his shoulders, told him I loved him, kissed him and told him it was time to sleep. He laid right down and closed his eyes. There hasn't been a peep out of him since.
I wanted to hold him all night - I said goodbye to that little "baby" that I have cared for this past year. It is hard for us - but we are excited for the next chapter.
The bottles are washed and packed up.
