It's AAAAALL bwoken!

Hi. My name is Christy and ... I'm a parent of a bottle-holic. Yes, yes...please save your rotten fruit and judgments for later. We have let our son drink milk from a bottle WAAAY too long according to some standards. Zachary just turned three in April and still, up until last week, drank from a bottle many times a day and at night. Last week we finally took it away during the daytime and only gave it at bedtime. To be completely honest, we really didn't see much wrong with it. I know there are complaints out there of possible dental or ear issues, but thankfully we've not had any of those. Soooo...now that I am done explaining myself to the world. This morning Scott was cleaning the aforementioned bad parenting tool and his finger went right through the nipple. He looked at me with surprised and said "uh, oh." Yep - it was broken...our last bottle/nipple. Okay, well...no time like the present! We told ourselves that when this one was done there'd be NO MORE and so here we are. We made very sure that he had no nap today and was thoroughly exhausted for bedtime. A few times today I made sure to remind him that it was "bwoken" and we'd have to use a cup tonight at bedtime. So - 7:30 rolled around. I had him pick out a book, filled the Diego cup up with water and he oh so willingly went up to bed. I read the book, covered him up and said "okay. Night-Night!" Then the dramatics began. Throwing himself around and screaming "No bedtime!" I had to throw him in bed twice and finally walk out on him. It took him about ten minutes of crying, throwing things around, oh and Daddy went up with a threat of a spanking. VOILA! No more bottles for him!! It is finished! Next? The diapers! Oh, what a beautiful day to have yet another child bottle-free and potty trained! I can hardly imagine. :) I guess before I get all excited I should see how the next few nights go. What a great week! Lilly has slept through the night four nights in a row and now no bottle for Zach. Is it Christmas in April?

Update: Zach woke up about Midnight crying his eyes out. He didn't ask for the bottle, but he was seriously having a hard time getting himself relaxed and back to sleep. Scott or I would go in every ten minutes, just enough time for us to fall back asleep and then BAM he'd scream again. Scott HATES that b/c it gives him a terrible headache to be woken up several times like that. I hate it too but mostly b/c I was afraid he'd wake Lilly, which he did. So he was up from about Midnight to One am and then Lilly woke up. His hour was not near as bad as we feared and I know neither of us is looking forward to a repeat tonight. Hopefully he figures out a self soothing technique soon. It's funny though - here I thought I'd be all strong about this b/c I knew was too old to have it anyway. I was the one laying there thinking "Oh, just give him a bottle. Just put water in it or something." Thanks be to God that Scott didn't even mention it b/c I surely would have cracked. Now that we've gotten through the first night there's no going back, so I feel better. *yawn* Where's my coffee, though?