I have been blessed with great nappers; wait, let me rephrase, I HAD been blessed with great nappers. From about 3 months-6 months, I could plop my kids in a swing or boppy chair while they were awake and they would go right to sleep. We went through a rough patch once I broke the swing addiction and moved them to cribs for nap time but that quickly passed. Once I introduced lovies, I never heard a peep from Marcus or Mia as they fell asleep. Ahhh, the absolute perfection of 2, 2-hour naps…
Those days are OVER! I now hear banging on the walls, singing, jiberjabbering, crying and almost always, screaming. Marcus has learned to throw his lovie out of his crib and throw a tempertantrum until I come in and redeliver the lovie. Things have gotten so noisy at nap times that I am ready to force my children to drop their morning nap in hopes of one peaceful long afternoon nap (rumor is most kids don’t move to one nap until closer to 15+ months). I torture myself by running with a stroller that weighs as much as me for 4 miles in 85 degree humid temps just to get my kids to fall asleep peacefully in the AM (the plus: I am down to my pre-pre-pregnancy weight, and am getting full use of my audible subscription). I really hope this new repugnance for nap time is just a stage and my kids soon rediscover the beauty of daytime sleep!
On another note, my children are now 13 months old and according to “the books”, should be off the bottle. Truthfully, before the kids first birthday we easily transitioned from formula in bottles to whole milk out of sippy cups within a few weeks. EXCEPT, we still have a night time bottle which I admit is more Max and I’s security blanket than the kids. Like most children, ours are very “spirited” at 7:30 PM. Getting them diapered and into their pajamas is no easy task. The beauty of the bottle is we can stick it in their mouths and they will lie still for about 5 min. This gives us just enough time to apply a touch of lotion, slip on a clean diaper and pull on their pajama bottoms without a struggle. Honestly they are only drinking about 4 oz. and I don’t think they would care if we nicked it. God give me strength when I finally drop that last bottle; I’M the one that’s going to need it most.
When you talk to Roni for more than a few minutes, you will quickly find out that I can talk about woodworking for 18 hrs a day. It is my favorite non-family related pastime in the world and she humors me by trying to be interested. I subscribe to almost a 20 RSS feeds for woodworking blogs, but have to admit, yours and Rosa’s blogs are still my favorites, hands down.
I feel like I get a peek into my future with your posts. While your situation is obviously different from ours, it is so great to see your kids achievements just a few months before we can expect to see them ourselves. Thanks for the fun look at life with three handfuls (good luck with two hands!).
I say leave the evening bottle…the sanity is totally worth it! We didn’t cut T’s until closer to 18 months when he was having some other illness something and it just worked. We also found that when we tried to remove it earlier he woke up earlier, hungry…So, if you do stop, I’d recommend going from bottle to sippy cup w/ milk.
Sorry about the naps…:( Sounds like a great substitute though, a good run!
My goodness, your babies are cute! I’ve enjoyed browsing around your blog a bit. I have twins and an older daughter. My twins are only 9 months, so I can see from your posts what I’ve got coming! :o) Good luck in giving up the final bottle. My twins would marry their bottles if they could, so I’m not sure how we’re going to survive the big transition!
[...] feel for My Baby Drama but truth be told she is way way ahead of me with only having a bottle at night with 13 month olds! [...]