Saying goodbye to the first year…means NO MORE BOTTLES!

When my now five-year-old son turned one, I took him right off the bottle. He was my first baby and that’s what my pediatrician told me to do, so that’s what I did. Despite the screaming during bedtime and the sippy cups that were being thrown at me during naptime, I was determined to get him off that bottle. Plus, I couldn’t wait to never clean another bottle and get rid of them cluttering my counter any longer!

When we had Chase, it was four years after we had his big brother, and it was a lot like starting over. Nicholas was potty trained for over a year. He took showers (no more bath time) and went to bed on his own (no more lying in bed with him till he fell asleep and sneaking out of the room (I know I am not the only mom that has done this).

We were way past the baby stage, with bouncy seats, baby swings, pack and plays, and excusers taking over our house. We were all finally sleeping in to 8 and sometimes 9 a.m.!  Nicholas didn’t sleep through the night until he was nine months old (again, first kid, partly my fault going in for every cry), which meant those 11 p.m., 2 a.m., and 5 a.m. feedings were going to be a part of my routine again with Chase. And this time around, I wasn’t going to “sleep when the baby is sleeping.”

Since so much time passed since we had a newborn in our house, I felt like we were having a baby for the first time again. I forgot most of the basic stuff, but not how I felt about those darn bottles!

I was freaking out all over again, even worse than the first time around. Some say the unknown is scary, but for me it was what I already knew that I was scared of. It included everything from the delivery, to the sleepless nights, to changing diapers, and carrying a diaper bag again.

I was so excited to meet our little man, but terrified about how number two would change everything. I am a stay-at-home mom, so it was Nicholas and me for four years. It would never be just the two of us. I knew it was going to be so much better when Chase came along, but still it made me a little sad.

Now here we are, almost one year later, and even though Chase is still a “baby”, the baby phases are passing so much quicker than I would like. My sadness of it not being just me and Nicholas has been replaced with a crazy amount of joy I have watching my two boys play together in Chase’s crib, or the way Nicholas can make Chase laugh when we are at the playground. It is better than I ever imagined!

Each month cleaning Chase’s bottles, as he would turn four months, then five months, I would think only seven more months. And now that we are here in the last month, the bouncy seats, excusers, and swings are all put away, my excitement of getting rid of the bottles on my counter is not there like I thought it would be.

For all the new moms-to-be, or second-time and third-time moms that aren’t sure what to expect, well, expect the first year to fly by, and real soon.

Too soon those bottles will be off your counter and some part of you will wish to have them back…