Weaning

Who would have ever guessed we would wait to wean till 17 months, certainly not me! We had a handful of struggles in the beginning and I can remember telling myself, I WILL make it to a year. I had planned to exclusively breastfeed for the first 6 months and then introduce solids, well little Ms. Blythe was NOT very interested in solids until about 10 months. Even at 10 months she still wasn't eating a very substantial amount of solids and we were planning to go to Ecuador in December so we decided we should keep breastfeeding as an option while in Ecuador. As soon as we returned I had a 3 day plan to wean her. I would remove one feeding every 3 days and we were down to about 4 feedings a day. While in Ecuador she had gone back to waking up in the middle of the night and that was the first feeding that she lost the night we got home (momma needed a full night of sleep)! That was an easy feat. The next feeding I decided to remove was the one before morning nap, especially since she only had about 3 days left of morning naps. Side Story:

[This semester she is staying with Oslo and his mom Lauren while I work. They have an excellent group of friends who get together M-F in the AM for a play date and learning time. I figured by 16 months Blythe was old enough to go without the morning nap and she would be distracted enough with all the kiddos to not miss it]

I wasn't sure how she would react to me putting her down without nursing her since that was our usual routine, but I knew she was capable of putting herself to sleep because when I am not there for nap (which is at least one nap a day) she is laid down in the crib and she goes to sleep. So I kissed her night night, laid her down, and to my amazement she went down without a fuss! Feeding #2 removed, check!

Three days later it was time to remove the afternoon feeding and again it wasn't a problem. 3 days later is when the 3 day plan lost a wheel. The next feeding to remove was either the morning feeding or the night feeding. Jason thought I should remove the night feeding last and I thought she was more attached to the morning feeding since as soon as I take her out of the crib in the morning she is asking for milk. A few days passed and we decided to remove the night feeding first and Jason came up with a bed time routine (books, gram crackers, milk (in a cup), and bed). I thought she might really reject Jason putting her to bed, but she did great. Now we were down to the morning feeding.

I have to admit that I was a bit attached to the morning feeding as well. Blythe is an early riser (6:30am) and I enjoy the 15-20 minute morning feeding/watching news before I have to really be awake. Its our quiet time together before the day really gets started. On Sunday Jason let me sleep in and I did not nurse Blythe so I decided this morning that I should continue the trend. When I got her out of bed she asked for milk like she normally does and I handed her a sippy cup with milk. I think she was more bothered by the fact that she went from her dark room to a kitchen with the lights on than she was to not be nursed. Hopefully tomorrow morning will go just as well.