Or,
How we Rid Ourselves of the Binkie and the Bottle in the Same Week!
Now, now, Mommies. No hate mail.
We spent Roland's first Christmas here at home, and it was lovely. The day after, we boarded a train and sped off to Fargo, ND, where Oma and Opa picked us up for a fun-filled week in Sioux City!
We boarded the train, and the child was thrilled! There was a giant window with things to see and buildings to point at. He squealed with glee and bounced in my lap and was perfectly happy and content with everything in the world. He played with all of his toys that we'd brought in the carry on luggage, and it was a wonderful, easy trip.
For the first two minutes.
And then he squirmed and whined and grumped about not having room to crawl.
This alone would have likely made for a long and exhausting trip.
About two hours into the adventure, Mr. Man decided he was FAMISHED. So I pulled out the meat and cheese and crackers I had brought along for the trip. The boy of course attacked the food and devoured it. I had some, Colin had some, we were all a fat and happy family.
And then something terrible happened.
He had a piece of licorice, you know, cause sugar would obviously help the hyperactivity. At first, we thought he just gagged on the licorice...and then it came.
Lucky for me, Daddy was holding Roland and got the brunt of the explosion.
All. Over. The. Place.
Poor boyo. We got everyone cleaned up and he promptly passed out. I started to think that it was motion sickness, or he'd gagged himself. He felt a little warm, but I had already given him tylenol for teething, and I didn't really think anything of it.
And then my poor sweet husband stumbled off to the bathroom.
We started to think that maybe the food was bad. I had it in a small cooler, but it was a tad warm...not enough for food sickness, I didn't think. Regardless, we tossed it all away. None of us were feeling very hungry at this point anyway.
Roland woke up, and while he didn't throw up again, he was not interested in formula. All he wanted was water out of his sippy cup.
Not long after this, I started feeling the rumbling of tummy weasels. I resisted as long as I could, but, well. You know how it goes.
At this point, I started to suspect it was NOT food poisoning Particularly since my husband was sick numerous times. And every time I would drink water, I was following him. I'm just thankful that the child didn't get sick more...
Yes, we all were current on flu shots. I can only assume our trip would have been worse if we hadn't been.
Anyway. Our trip out was pretty horrific. The train itself wasn't bad, but I hate getting sick. Hate it more than anything else in the world. Hate, Hate, Hate. We got into Fargo, collapsed into bed at the hotel for a few hours, and then started the long drive back to Sioux City.
Of course we ran into snow and bad weather.
Of course!
I was still pretty sick, although I wasn't puking anymore. Poor Roland was not feeling well. He didn't want any formula, he didn't want to eat, all he wanted was to nurse his water. And he didn't drink much of that either.
When we got to Sioux City, I went right to comforting and loving on my poor little boy. He kept refusing his bottle, which was actually starting to worry me a little. He wouldn't drink formula, and he didn't want to eat much food. He would drink a little pedialyte, but not much. He didn't have a fever, but he was obviously not feeling well.
I tried to give him his binkie, you know, as you do when your child is sick. He looked at it, chewed on it a bit, and promptly spit it out. I just kind of stared at him. This is a boy who was glued to his binkie from day one. So I tried again, and one again, it ended up hanging.
I thought maybe it was a fluke. With the illness and all of us exhausted and crabby, I couldn't quite believe that something amazing may have just happened.
So I continued to try to binkie over the next few days. Same thing. SUCCESS!
The bottle was the same story. He would suck down his sippy cup like nobody's business, but he wanted nothing to do with the bottle. He'd chew on the nipple, stare at it, and then just throw it down. Eventually, I figured out what he was doing and I poured his formula into the sippy cup.
Bingo. That got his attention.
I swear, I was so happy I could cry. I really thought that the bottle and the binkie were going to give us a lot of trouble when he got older. But no, he just decided one day that he was going to be done with it. There have been a few times since then that I've offered the binkie, but he's not interested. The bottles were put away, and haven't come out since then.
I don't know if it was a combination of feeling ill and being off his schedule due to travelling, or if teething pain caused it, or if he just came to the right conclusion. But whatever it was, I am so damn happy that he decided to be done!
Now if only potty training goes this easily...and if it does, THEN you can all hate me.
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