Bedtime routine not working

I have done the same bedtime routine with my girls since they were a few months old and have just adjusted the time for their age.

6:30pm Bath and PJ's
7:00pm Bottles (on bedroom floor in boppies or just laying on the floor)
7:30pm Bed

The girls always did great with this, they would take a bottle and I put them down awake and they would fall asleep. For the past few weeks they are all over the place when I give them the bottle. They crawl away, refuse to take it, cry and fuss if I try to lay them back down to take more milk. I feel like I spend the whole time chasing them and trying to get them to take the bottle. I don't have help at night and have to do this on my own. They still have a bottle first thing in the morning when they wake at like 5 or 5:30 and I give it to them in the crib, they take the whole thing no problem. In the day they use straw cups and hardly take anything from them, they mostly play.

Should I just drop all bottles so that I am consistent, maybe the combo of both is confusing them? I really don't want to give them the night bottle in the crib, but I know they would take it much better. Please help.

 

I have done the same bedtime routine with my girls since they were a few months old and have just adjusted the time for their age.

6:30pm Bath and PJ's
7:00pm Bottles (on bedroom floor in boppies or just laying on the floor)
7:30pm Bed

The girls always did great with this, they would take a bottle and I put them down awake and they would fall asleep. For the past few weeks they are all over the place when I give them the bottle. They crawl away, refuse to take it, cry and fuss if I try to lay them back down to take more milk. I feel like I spend the whole time chasing them and trying to get them to take the bottle. I don't have help at night and have to do this on my own. They still have a bottle first thing in the morning when they wake at like 5 or 5:30 and I give it to them in the crib, they take the whole thing no problem. In the day they use straw cups and hardly take anything from them, they mostly play.

Should I just drop all bottles so that I am consistent, maybe the combo of both is confusing them? I really don't want to give them the night bottle in the crib, but I know they would take it much better. Please help.

 

Funny, I just gave two screaming one year olds their bottles in their cribs even though I said they shouldn't have them anymore.

SIGH

I am thinking about going cold turkey like I did with my eldest and the binky. I threw them all out so there was no temptation to give into. You (and I) may have one hard night, but it won't last forever. I only work weekends and might go ahead and do it tomorrow. I'll just go out and load up on sippies and give them a sippy for bed with room temp water after their supper and milk sippie. Pray for me and best of luck. I hope this answered your question.

 

When my two dropped their bedtime/naptime nursing session I replaced it with reading books. It worked just fine - you might try that.

 

Around 11-12 months was when mine started throwing and wandering around with their bottles. I gave up trying to get them to drink it all at once. Then shortly after we switched from bottles to sippies (they were down to just morning and evening anyway). So, now what we do is we go to the family room after PJ's, put on a Baby Einstein, and give them their sippies. They drink at their own pace, and hardly ever the whole thing, but they go to bed fine.

 

It sounds like they just are not interested in that night bottle anymore. Amy is just starting that (Sarah still sucks hers dry), and I just let her drink all, some, or none, whatever she seems to feel like. I think if they really needed the milk (to keep from being hungry), they would drink it. The fact that they refuse it, but then cry for it after you put them in the crib, sounds like a stalling tactic to me.

 

K&K were done with bottles right at one but prior to that I would hold them for their bottles. I did their bottles alone every night one at a time then they went to bed. Would you consider holding them instead of expecting them to lay on their own and drink?

 

We also stopped bottles the day we stopped formula. It sounds like they just aren't interested. Once we stopped bottles, my guys didn't get a drink after dinner unless they asked for it--I was looking ahead to potty training and didn't want to start a habit I would later have to break.