Off the bottle

I decided that Ava needed to go cold-turkey off the bottle. She only gets it at night now but with infant formula that is costly and does her no good. Plus, most of the time in the middle of the night, she'll wake, take a couple sips, and go back to bed. Why would I want to mess up such a predictable, smooth thing? Like I said, formula is NOT cheap (she rejected the toddler kind and refuses milk) and it just bothers me that she's 17 months old and still drinking from a bottle. Plus, she has lately gotten really attached to it and started requesting "mih" [milk] about 2 hrs. before bedtime and I refuse to give it to her until it's time for bed and thus the battle begins. That girl is nothing if not persistent. I can forget about trying to sit down and relax for 1 minute if she is on a mission to get something--especially that dang bottle. Anyway, tonight is the second night of mission "Ditch the bottle". She cries for a while, but eventually goes to sleep. Not that bad. Still, I feel bad like I've cut off something valuable to her. Or maybe it's just me realizing that she's more a toddler than a baby now. How did that happen?!? Growing pains...We all have them but for different reasons. So my victory is tempered with a bit of sadness. Until I think of all the bottles I don't have to wash anymore--hallelujah!!!