Officially Done With Bottles

Emily and Kyle are officially done with bottles! They haven't even seemed to notice...

No More Bottles?!?!

We have been slowly decreasing the amount of breast milk Kyle and Emily get in their night time bottles. We were down to 5oz and were going to drop to 4oz tomorrow and do that for a couple days and then be done with bottles.

We changed our minds.

Tonight after bath time (when Emily and Kyle have been drinking their bottles), they didn't seem to be looking for them or expecting them. So we just went with it. And they went to bed without drinking bottles. And it didn't even seem like a big deal.

Hopefully this means we are done with bottles!

Now... I just have to stop making milk!

Almost Down To One

Sunday and Monday morning, Kyle and Emily only had one bottle! Both days they didn't wake up for their morning bottles, so I just didn't give it to them.

This morning they woke up and were a little whiny, so Brent gave them a little bit of breastmilk in bottles. They both have pretty bad colds, so I'm guessing they were just thirsty when they woke up and would have been okay with a sippy of water, but the bottles are comforting to them.... plus it helped them fall back asleep and sleep for another hour or so, which is good for them.

Hopefully tomorrow will be another one bottle day! :)

Milk!

We are still doing two bottles of breastmilk a day... but over the past couple weeks I have been giving Emily and Kyle less and less breastmilk in their morning bottle. They are down to 4oz in their morning bottle... and they are still getting 9oz of breastmilk in their night time bottle.

During the day, they drink lots of water from a variety of sippy cups. Their new favorites are the Tommy Tippies with soft straws. They are similar to Aunt Kara's Camleback water bottle, which they LOVE to drink from, so it only makes sense that these would be their favorite sippies.

Emily and Kyle have been drinking whole milk pretty consistently in the afternoon and recently I have also started giving them some after breakfast and with dinner. They are drinking between 8 and 12oz of whole milk a day; a little bit at each meal and at snack time. Last week (or maybe two weeks ago...) I discovered that if I gave them their whole milk in cups with straws they drink it WAY better than if it's in a sippie cup. We have been using the Zip Lock cups and the "Take'n'Toss" cups with the lids and straws.

Because they are getting their milk during meal times and not in sippies, they are only getting their two bottles in their crib! Normally they go back to sleep for a little bit after their morning bottle, so once they are no longer getting this bottle, they might be up for the day a little bit earlier... For their night time bottle, we try to get them to lay on the floor and drink their bottle or cuddle in a lap before they go to bed. We DO NOT let them wander around with the bottle or play with it. Most of the time they drink about half of their bottles before bedtime and finish up the second half in bed.

One Down Two To Go

Yesterday we finally gave Emily and Kyle a full sippy cup of just Whole Milk! Kyle drank most of his and Emily drank about half of hers! I think we are officially down to just two bottles of breast milk a day!

The past week or so Emily hasn't been eating for drinking as much as normal. I think it's because of her ear infection. Last night at dinner she ate a ton and she did well with breakfast this morning, so I think she is finally getting her appetite back.

We are going to leave things as they are bottle wise for now. We'll keep giving Emily and Kyle their morning and bedtime bottles of breast milk for another couple weeks. Once we getting settled in Michigan and adjusted to a new home and a new work schedule for Brent, then we'll start working on replacing the other two bottles. I don't want to throw too much change at them at once.

Day Two with Whole Milk = Small Success

Today I didn't give Kyle and Emily any milk with lunch (which is normal). When it came time for their afternoon bottle, I gave them each a sippy cup with 3oz of whole milk and 5 oz of breast milk. Emily sucked it right down. Kyle threw a fit at first because he wanted a bottle, but eventually he drank it all!

I think I am going to stick with this for a couple days and once both of the toddles are doing well with it, I'll start to give them a little less breast milk and a little more whole milk.

Once they are drinking only whole milk in the afternoon, then we'll start to work on either their morning or night time bottle. I haven't decided yet which of those will be the first to go.

First Attempt at Whole Milk = Fail!

We decided to wait until we got back from Michigan to start trying to switch Emily and Kyle over to whole milk from breast milk. Today was our first full day home, so I figured why not start today....

Currently they are drinking three bottles of breast milk a day. One first thing when they wake up, one in the afternoon, and one at bedtime. Throughout the day they drink plenty of water from sippy cups.

We figured the easiest bottle to get rid of would be the afternoon bottle. So, at lunch time I gave them a sippy cup of whole milk. At first, Kyle sucked down about an ounce of it and Emily made faces after trying a sip. They really weren't too sure what to think of it and didn't seem all that interested in drinking it after their initial taste. I figured we would try again just before snack time, when they normally have their bottle... they normal don't have anything to drink with their meals...

Just before snack time, they both started to look for their bottles, so I gave them their sippy cups with the whole milk in them. Kyle and Emily both laid down and drank a little bit. When they realized it wasn't breast milk, they switched sippy cups. It was like they thought the other one had the "good stuff." After they both realized that both sippy cups had whole milk in them, they threw the cups at me and walked over to their dresser (where their bottles normally are sitting) and reached up and said "baba baba baba" and then started whining when they realized there weren't any bottles up there. I gave them their sippy cups back and tried to get them to drink more of the whole milk, but they both refused.

After about 10 minutes, I went downstairs and got their bottles of breast milk...

Tomorrow... we shall try again...

12 Months Old

Emily and Kyle are a year old! It's hard to believe!!

Emily and Kyle are eating pretty much everything Mommy and Daddy are eating. Most days we eat cheese quesadillas for lunch; Emily and Kyle both get very excited when they see their "dia" and LOVE them. They also love yogurt (as long as it doesn't have fruit in it) and bananas. They will pretty much eat anything they can shove in their mouths... as long as its not too cold.

Schedule wise... we are pretty much the same as we were a month ago.

• Normally around 6am, Emily and Kyle drink a bottle
• Sometime between 7am and 8am Kyle and Emily wake up for the day.
• Breakfast is at 8:30
• Between 9:30 and 10am Kyle and Emily drink a bottle and go down for naps
• Lunch is normally between Noon and 12:30, whenever Emily and Kyle wake up from their naps
• After lunch, if it's nice outside, we take a walk and then play
• At 2:45 we eat snacks
• After snacks, Kyle and Emily drink a bottle and then play until 3:30 when they go down for naps
• Emily and Kyle normally wake up between 4:30 and 5:30
• Dinner is between 5pm and 5:30 depending on when they wake up
• After dinner we play until about 6:30 and then do baths
• Between 7pm and 7:30, Kyle and Emily go to bed for the night

We are still using bottles. When we get home next week, we are going to take away their afternoon bottle of breastmilk and give then a sippy cup with whole milk during lunch or snack time. Once we've made that transition, we'll start to work on their morning bottle and then their night time bottle. 

Play time for Kyle and Emily has become very fun to watch as they have really started to play with each other. They are learning to share toys and to trade toys. They also love to push each other around on their cars. Emily and Kyle love to play with balls. We have lots of different kinds and they seem to love them all. They talk to each other and it sounds like they are actually having conversations. They like to give each other kisses and hugs. They follow each other around and it tends to be "monkey see monkey do" in our house.

We've played outside a couple times and enjoyed the warm weather. Kyle and Emily both like to eat grass and leaves.

• Emily is still wearing 6 month clothes
• Emily blows kisses... and gives wet and slobbery open mouth kisses
• Emily giggles very easily and it is very contagious
• Emily is starting to have Mommy Separation issues
• Emily can match the shapes on the bug and click them into their spots
• Emily's favorite foods seem to be carrots and Cheerios, but she will eat pretty much everything you put in front of her
• Emily loves to walk and explore new places
• Emily says "mama", "dada", "gampa", "boda" (brother), and a few other words. 
• Emily knows who Mommy, Daddy, Kyle, and Aunt Kara are. She also recognizes a lot of other people she knows... like Grandparents and friends.
• Emily knows her names and responds to it most of the time.
• Emily has one tooth!

• Kyle is wearing 9 month clothes
• Kyle loves to give Mommy, Daddy, and Emily kisses... he sometimes blows kisses
• Kyle has an old man giggle that he makes you work to get
• Kyle seems to love everyone and takes the lead in social situations to let Emily know its okay
• Kyle seems to be a little bit of a picky eater compared to Emily, but loves his veggies and is generally a good eater
• Kyle has mastered walking... But walks like a drunk when he's tried. It's funny :)
• Kyle says "mama", "mom", "dada", and a few other random words
• Kyle know who Mommy, Daddy, Emily, and Aunt Kara are. He also recognizes faces other people he knows... like Grandparents and friends.
• Kyle knows his name and responds to it most of the time.
• Kyle has five teeth!
• Kyle is helmet free!!

Here we are a year ago.... 

It's hard to believe they are no longer our tiny little babies. They have grown up into wonderful and amazing little TODDLES and are truly a gift from God!

Sippy Cups

Emily and Kyle were doing great with the three stage sippy cups on stage one (the bottle nipples), so a couple days ago we switched them to stage 2 (the sippy cup nipples). They are still doing great with them!

We have just been doing water in their sippy cups because they don't "drink" from them, they "sip" and the sipping is not good for their teeth if it's anything except water. We are just going to keep giving them water in their sippy cups until we are done with breastmilk, then we will introduce whole milk in their sippy cups instead of the bottles.

As far as when they will be done with breastmilk, I haven't decided for sure yet. It has been recommended that we continue to give them breastmilk for longer than 12 months (as long as I can continue to produce it) because of how small they still are. My original goal was to do breastmilk for a year (which we are about two weeks from reaching!), but I am very willing to continue to pump if that's what is best for my babies.

Sippy Cups = Fun Toys

The past week or so has been a struggle with getting Emily and Kyle to use sippy cups. They like to play with them... and every once in a while will try to drink from them. Emily does do better than Kyle, but they both struggle.

I was getting frustrated, so I started doing some research about transitioning from bottles to sippy cups. It made me feel better... and gave me some ideas.

Emily and Kyle still had gift cards from Christmas, so we bought two different kinds to try.
We got a 3-1 bottle/sippy cup. It was two different nipples (a bottle nipple and a sippy cup nipple) and can have handles if you want it to. The babies seem to do okay with the bottle nipple. The idea is to get them used to drinking from the cup with the bottle nipple and then switch. So we'll give it a week or so with the bottle nipple and try to switch.
We also got some "big kid" sippy cups... ones that if you tip them upside down, what's inside just comes out (the babies don't have to suck). We've been using these for water at meals and they seem to do okay with them... but they do make a wet mess.

We'll keep at it... hopefully in another five weeks (when the babies turn one!) we'll be bottle free!

Bye Bye Bottles??

The goal is to be done with bottles by the time babies are a year old, right??
We have about a month and a half until Kyle and Emily are a year old, so I figured we probably should start the process...
We have been giving Emily and Kyle sippy cups for a while for just water or a little bit a juice mixed with water. They mostly just play with them, but we very good about getting the right part in their month... and chewing on it. The past couple weeks Emily has really started to drink out of the sippy cups, but Kyle mostly just chews.
Normally after lunch Emily and Kyle drink part of a bottle, play for a little bit, and then finish their bottles. I figured this bottle would be the easiest to get rid of and replace with a sippy cup first. So today I put their milk in sippy cups....
Emily drank about half of it and then went to play. Kyle drank a little bit and then just chewed on it. A little while later, Kyle was trying so hard to get his milk out and was just getting frustrated. I felt bad for him and gave in... I put the rest of their milk in bottles and they both sucked it right down.

We will try again tomorrow...

They Have the Right Idea...

I've been trying to give Emily and Kyle sippy cups more often to try to help them figure them out. They can drink from them if they are laying flat on their backs (the same way they drink their bottles), but haven't really figured out how to drink when they are sitting or standing. They get the right back in their mouths, but can't figure it out from there. When I help them tip the cups up so they can drink from them, they do.... they just can't figure out how to do it by themselves. 

Sippy Cups

Today I gave Emily and Kyle sippy cups with a little bit of water in them just to see what they would do. They knew they were cups and tries to put them in their mouths....and they played with the cups. They could drink from them with help from mommy, but not by themselves.