Predictably Unpredictable !

Ever since I managed to get lilP's paediatrician to resignedly give his nod for starting her on the bottle, I have been mentally fast forwarding to the hard times that are going to be instore for me to persuade her to wean her off it...

Since lilP was a preemie and severely underweight, the most important thing for me was to see that she fed properly, even if it was through the bottle..notwithstanding the absolute paranoia with which I would indulge in the laborious bottle sterilisation sessions, I used to get orgasmic joy at seeing her guzzle down a bottle of milk.:-) And so even though well-meaning docs, friends advised me to stop the bottle sooner than later, I steadfastly stood my ground and decided to turn a deaf ear to their pearls of wisdom....when even after the 18 months mark, she was still using the bottle, her doc gave me a dressing down, ordering me to stop giving her the bottle. The logic being since lilP was eating her solids well, if she wanted her quota of milk...she would use a sipper or glass. Not that I hadnt attempted to encourage her to drink her milk through a sipper/glass, etc but invariably she just managed to take in a sip or two and then would never be interested to drink the rest....not that she would miss it either, she would just carry on doing whatever she wanted...as if the milk drinking session never happened. And so I resisted...since I didnt want to deprive her of something she loved...milk that is.

19th month still had her enjoying her bottle of dudu...and so push coming to shove...I decided to take the plunge in the weaning process. I knew I would need to have nerves of steel to not give in to her tears for a meagre bottle...but had heard enough about how one just needs to be firm and that eventually they accept the change.Having bookmarked all the resourceful sites on the said subject, reading up on every chit of paper (read article) on the same, I felt I was truly armed to begin this much dreaded process with lilP....

Cut to Day 1 of task....dudutime and momsy very conscious about enthusing her voice with positive excitement brings out the glass of milk...lilP takes one look at it and goes away disinterested....repeated efforts at getting her to touch her lips around the glass bear no fruit...shoulders begin to sag...and then an Einstein moment happens...a straw is whipped out of thin air....lilP takes one look at it and like a tail wagging puppy immediately makes a bee for it...momsy does a small demo for her and viola...lilP takes to it as fish to water and before I could say WOW...has the milk down her throat....What an anti-climax !

Ofcourse...after that moment, never once did she ever ask for the bottle...it was as if it never existed...so much for transition theory and all my preparation. thats lilP for you...stumping you with her unpredictable behaviour!