A Release from Expectations

I just realized today that Miss Abby is almost 13 months old......and she still take a bottle.

While that might not be a revelation to most of you and you may wonder why I find that interesting, let me explain.  All of the boys were weaned from their bottles with no fanfare at all within days of their 1st birthday.  With Lee and Greg we literally threw the bottles away.  I took them from Bear and hid them just a few days before his birthday. 

Why the difference?  Well, I think part of it has to do with the "older buy wiser" aspect of parenting.  We aren't as grouchy and defensive about things like that anymore.  I have yet to see a 5 year old sucking a bottle and I've seen some pretty lax parenting behaviors before. 

Abby has a milk sensitivity.  We tried to put her on regular milk 6 weeks ago, but she had a horrible reaction to it.  Our nurse practitioner recommended we go back to formula for a month and see if it cleared up (it did) and then we would try to ease her into regular milk after that.  We have about 9 more days of the month back on formula.  Next month we are going to try making the bottles half whole milk, half regular  formula.  If she does well, then the next month will be 3/4 whole milk, 1/4 regular formula.  Hopefully that will take care of the problem.  It is much easier to do such things in a bottle with measurements  on the side.  I could make up a pitcher and keep it in the fridge with the correct measurements but honestly, we don't have that kind of fridge room.  LOL

My realization came today that I'm not uptight or defensive about her still taking a bottle.  Why the sudden chance in my personality?  The people that tend to be so critical of such things aren't really spending mass quantities of time with us right now. 

It is a revelation to me that I had inadvertantly surrounded myself by some very critical people.  Why?  I can assure you that won't be a problem anymore.  Such a little thing has made such a difference in my responding attitude.  I'm not defensive.  I'm not uptight.  I actually hadn't even given the whole bottle thing a thought....until this morning.  LOL 

Surround yourself with loving, kind, supportive people.  It is amazing the difference that will make in your life :)