Update on the break up....

Update....naptime did NOT go well with Daddy today. Major coniption apparently would be an understatement.

I called one of our therapists to get some advice...over my lunch hour in the Walmart parking lot.

She gave me quite a few ideas/options/things to try.

We determined that Maggie's need for the baba is more sensory attachment than anything else. This was apparent when we realized that she just wants something to chew on, not necessary something to drink.

The therapist suggested that we might need to take one step back to move forward.

Maggie has been putting herself to sleep for many months now. However, the therapist suggested that we bring Maggie back into our bed, read to her, sing to her, and try to get her to re-attach to me or Michael, versus attaching to an item (like the bottle).

So, we did a few things. First thing is that I went to Walmart and bought Maggie a couple of new sippy cups. When I showed them to her today, I showed her these new cups (completely different than any others we have) and said - here are your new big girl cups. She was THRILLED! (score for Momma!)

When it was time to go to bed, I grabbed the new cup, filled it with milk, and brought it into our bedroom. I asked Maggie to pick out some books so that we could read together in Momma's bed. We enjoyed reading together and I could sense her relaxing and getting tired. At that point, I gave Maggie her new cup, turned the light off and snuggled with her. She fought it for a bit - asking for the light to be put back on, asking to watch tv (which I knew would be an issue) but she finally relaxed, sucked on her new sippy cup and fell asleep within about 20 minutes of lights out. I woke up ( yes, I fell asleep with her) and put her in her bed. She didn't wake up and she never asked for her baba. The sippy cup was empty and stayed in our room.

Whew...maybe this will work?! I'm thankful that not once did Maggie ask for her baba. She was too excited about her new sippy cups I guess....which is a good thing, because our house is officially baba free. That's right....when she wasn't looking, I put all of the bottles and nipples in a bag and took it out to the trash. Yep. Cold turkey....for Momma/Daddy & baby. This way, we're not tempted to cave in! I'm hopeful that out of sight/out of mind will work with this.

I'm anxious to see what happens tonight - if she wakes up looking/asking for the baba, or if she will wake up earlier than normal. I'm hopeful that this will truly take care of our issue.

As for the sippy cup, I am going to gradually reduce the amount of milk given each night, so that at some point there will be nothing in there, and she won't want/need it any longer. Then we can move on to the next challenge.

Oh, and did I mention that Maggie went pee pee in the potty tonight?!?! That's right, folks...and without any proding on my part. I know that is a fluke, but seriously....I was pretty pumped about it.

Stay tuned for more :)