In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love. -- Mother Teresa

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Down to One without a Hitch?

Thanks to the advice from my good friend, Valerie, we are down to just one final nursing session as of today. When she was down to weaning her boys from their sleep-associated feedings, she altered their entire going-to-bed routine so they could not fall asleep while nursing. I started with the pre-nap session and changed our routine from eating lunch, reading books, changing diaper, nursing/singing to eating lunch, nursing, changing diaper, reading books, singing. I also changed the location of the nursing session from the rocking chair in her room to the living room at an attempt to totally disassociate it from naptime. This seemed to work. Elsa no longer fell asleep while nursing, and though she fussed for awhile when I put her down that first afternoon and didn't take naps the following two days, she seemed to do totally fine the rest of the week. So today I decided to just see what would happen if we skipped the nursing altogether, and it didn't even seem to phase her. So I think we are perhaps down to just the nighttime nursing. I will likely change up our bedtime routine just as I did the naptime routine and go with that for a week or two before attempting to drop the last session altogether, as I know this will likely be the toughest. I was thinking today that in a way I feel like I am somewhat tricking her into weaning instead of just letting it happen naturally -- and part of me would really like for her to just do it on her own -- but I have read (and my doctor has said) that weaning should happen when either the baby or the mother is ready, and I am just feeling more and more that it is time for me to have my body back for awhile. I feel that as long as the weaning is not causing Elsa any extreme discomfort or anxiety, then all is well. And so far, well it seems to be.

1 comment:

Rebecca (Ramblings by Reba) said...

I don't think you're tricking her. I think you're helping her get used to doing things a bit different. Truly.

I'm glad it went so well. Yay!