Azalia is almost 8 months old and still soley breastfeeding which is great except that I can't leave her with a babysitter for any length of time. This isn't something I'd do very often anyway but it would be nice to have the option, yk? Anyway.. I was thinking I could pump milk and have my sil give it to her in a sippy cup. I think she'd have an easier time drinking from a sippy cup then a bottle. Anyone do this with their breastfed baby? How'd it work out?

My babies have all started with a cup around 6 months. Not allll the time or anything..just..'hey, here, wanna try some water from a cup' kind of thing. And all have taken to it without an issue.

By 9 months they have a cup somewhat regularly...how to describe 'somewhat regularly' ... :p Maybe a cup a day is offered...but they just take a few sips here and there. Getting the hang of the cup and the taste of water. Not as a real source for thirst quenching or anything.

They have those straw cups out now though Ash that are great! Some kids take to those better than sippy cups. No tipping the cup up to get a drink, which is a very hard concept to grasp, when you've never had to do such a thing, kwim? They just put their lips around and suck. :p

As far as that fitting the bill for what you need...I dunno. I mean I'd definitely try a cup over a bottle for her at this age. If that's what you're asking.

How long are you thinking of leaving her? How often does she nurse now? Are you thinking leave the cup of milk as a replacement for a nursing? Or just as a 'just in case'...if she seems too fussy or something for a bit while you're gone. KWIM?

Oh, sorry, cut short...I think that was everything, but, abrupt halt in thought process nonetheless :p

She nurses approx every 4 hrs but as you know I don't schedule her feedings so that sometimes varies. Some days she seems to nurse all day long yk? On a typical day she is actually pretty good about keeping a good routine though. She nurses around 5-6am and goes back to sleep for an hour or two then doesn't nurse again until just before her morning nap around 9:30ish. Then shes good again until after lunch. Then I usually feed her before dinner when she goes down for her afternoon nap (which is great.. all my others wanted to eat well I was cooking dinner or well I was trying to eat dinner:p). Anyway.. what brought this up is that I would like to go garage saling this weekend with dh. We would leave after her morning feeding and would *want* to be gone until the afternoon. So I was thinking if she does good with a sippy cup (of course I'll test it out before the weekend) I could have sil give her a sippy cup of breastmilk when she starts to act fussy/hungry around 9:30. Hopefully that would keep her going til we got home after lunch.

I just thought of something.. should I warm the milk? Or you think she'd take it cold? I suppose I could try cold first eh?

Yeah I"d just experiment until then.

the first cups we tried with dd were made out of the same stuff (silicon??) that bottle nipples are made out of, but with a sippy shaped mouth part. it took her a few tries over 2 or 3 days before she got it, but she used it with pumped breast milk first. :-) then water...they are called Nuby:

http://www.nuby.com/products/cups/9644.aspx

We've also tried these...but Shaelyn already has grasped the hafta-tip-the-cup thing...so she tries tipping these and it doesn't work!

http://www.nuby.com/products/cups/9637.aspx

Neither of these are insulated...

When we were trying to get DS to use a sippy cup, we found he took to the Nubby sippy cups because he liked the soft spouts. Also, we tried with water first because if they choke or shake and spill a little, its just water.

Thanks ladies.. I sent dh to buy a sippy cup and showed him a pic of a nuby. We will see what he comes back with.