That time I didn't take anyone's advice (I meant to, I really did).

Everyone had such great advice about weaning and I agreed with all of it. I wanted to go slowly. To wait until the casts came off. But then I did none of those things.

Thankfully I think it all worked out for the best.

When Anna had her arm cast removed and Ben brought her home, she was in a strangely content mood. Probably the best mood since the surgery. That coupled with the knowledge that Ben would be starting one of his most intense rotations in the ER in four days motivated me to take this window of opportunity to wean Anna while she was happy and I had the moral support of the hubs.

Call it parental instinct, intuition, or whatever... when we were trying to decide which bottle feeding to drop, we had an epiphany. Dropping feedings wasn't going to work with Anna. We knew she wouldn't just forget about the feeding with distraction, she would more than likely throw a mini-fit all day long until it was time for her next bottle. She would be pushing for them all day if she knew there was a chance that at some point during the day, she would get one. She's persistent like that. We were afraid that she wouldn't 'get' that we were moving her off the bottle. We agreed that the subtle weaning-without-her-noticing thing wasn't going to work. So we decided to instead go with a more direct approach- tell her exactly what we were going to do up front and then wean cold turkey. Drop the bottles completely, move her to a new cup, and even drop a feeding. I know it sounds terribly fast and borderline abusive (ok not really), and I was very nervous about the whole thing but Ben was confident enough for the both of us. And it worked sooo well!

In the morning we gathered all the bottles together and showed them to Anna. We told her that she didn't need her bottles now because she was a big girl who could drink from a cup like mommy and daddy. We told her we knew she could do it, and then we said "bye bye" to the bottles. She immediately started crying. She knew what we were saying! I don't know if it's because Anna is so small for her age (and bald) that she still resembles a baby to me and therefore I assume she can't grasp most of what we say or what... but she gets it. She gets more than I think. It makes it so much easier when you can explain to your kid what's up. So even though she was pretty upset, we brought out her new cup (it was the same Playtex straw cup she was using before but smaller, with handles, and without a valve so she can sip easier) and I acted really excited about it, clapping and all. That was the first time she smiled. After that, we just doted her with extra attention throughout the day and gave her milk in her cup in the afternoon and before bed (we decided on morning, after her afternoon nap, and nighttime for milk. This is what worked best for Anna's needs and our own. We didn't want to be lugging around milk everywhere we went and trying to keep it cold, so for lunch and dinner she gets water).

If you can believe it, her attitude was actually better the day we weaned her than the entire last month when she's been whining for a bottle all day long. It's like we saved her from the tyranny of her own endless desires. Ha. It's really been great. She's even drinking the exact recommended amount of milk now that she's on the cup, completely on her own. I'm sure part of her improvement is also from having the arm cast off. Regardless, I feel like I have some of my daughter back! Can I just say that I also love how our kitchen looks normal again. No more baby bottle paraphernalia. She's also eating really well now that she's not snacking as much. I've gotten her to actually enjoy broccoli by putting some plain yogurt on it, and she eats sweet potato like it's candy. She has eaten a whole sweet potato at dinner before. Impressive.

Thanks everyone again for all of your advice! Even though I didn't take any of it. I guess this just goes to show that each child and circumstance is so different, you never know what will work out best. Moral of the story for me: don't sweat it. I feel 50% more laid back as a Mom already. Phew.