Taking Baby Steps in a Big Girl's World!

As Carly's first birthday approaches (OH MY!) Dave and I have been trying to transition her into more table food (or as much as you can with a toothless infant) and into using her sippy cup.

Last week we started to make some progress with her sippy cup. I found a toddler water bottle that looks similar to her neighborhood friends' bottles that she took to quickly after playing at the park. She then was willing to use her sippy cup more and more. (I'm using the cup for milk and the water bottle for water.) However, she wouldn't drink more than 2 ounces at a time. When she should be drinking 20 - 24 ounces a day, I thought we had a LONG way to go until she would be done nursing. Then, yesterday Carly drank 4 ounces from her cup with no fuss. And honestly, she probably would have drunk more had I brought more with us to the library. The afternoon and evening only brought 2 ounce sittings again, but I was still holding out hope with the morning's success.

Today Carly ate her breakfast as usual, went to check out new books at the library (it is too busy on story time days for us to look for books and get new ones checked out), and came home for her morning snack. She ate a few random items of table food while drinking from her sippy cup. She drank just over 2 ounces, which had me slightly distraught. UNTIL - we went upstairs for nap time. The doctor and I had spoken Monday about needing to give Carly some "tough love" soon about milk from a cup and eating table food. So, I turned on her musical seahorse and stood over her crib rocking her. She let me rock her for a few minutes before starting to squirm, at which point I placed her in the crib. She fussed for about three minutes and was asleep!

I know that tomorrow may not bring such success with her going down for a nap without nursing, but maybe she'll drink more than 2 ounces in a sitting from her sippy cup. We have a long way to go before she is a full time independent sleeper, eater, and drinker, but I'm not complaining. I chose to stay home to spend time with Carly during these early moments and milestones, I don't want to hold her back from the development she needs to make but I'm also not going to push her into growing up faster than she needs too.