The Sippy Cup

As many of you know, Brianna started refusing a bottle at about 8 weeks. We tried various bottles with slow and medium flow nipples. We even tried the Adiri bottle that looks and feels very much like a breast. Still no luck. I had resigned myself to breastfeeding exclusively for all her liquid needs. At about 4 months, her godmother Tina got her a sippy cup, she liked it and I got excited. We have been working with her for the past 2.5 months on getting her to use it. She loves to chew on it and the spout but she only gets mere dripples out of it. So I decided to try some other types of cups. I tied one with a hard spout which she did not like at all. I tried the new NUK learner cup which she took to but still did not get anything out of it. I had also tried the Gerber Transitional 7 oz cup but since it had a valve she could not get anything out. I was getting desperate! We are going on vacation the first of July and I would like her to be able to drink something out of a cup so she does not get dehydrated due to the heat. Yesterday, I decided to pump some breastmilk and put it in the Transitional cup without the valve. There was 3.5 oz in the "bottle" and when she was done there was less than an ounce! Granted she was wet from it drippling out of her mouth but she took it! She eagerly took juice from it last night. She took another "bottle" this morning, though she was not so happy about it (she was tired). I am going to keep working with her and hope and pray that by the time we go on vacation she can drink from it with the valve or without making such a mess!