The Weaning Story
I've been asked a few times now about how Clara weaned herself, so I'm writing our weaning story here before I forget how it happened myself! After Clara turned 1 and was eating enough solid foods to satisfy her, I tried putting her on a nursing schedule: once before morning nap, once before afternoon nap, and once before bedtime. If she signed "nurse" (by lifting up my shirt--always fun out in public!) at a non-nursing time, I offered her some solid food instead. She always was satisfied by the food, and over time, she started signing "more" when she was hungry, rather than "nurse." (The one major exception to this rule was when she was in distress and signed "nurse", we always nursed.) So Clara took to this new routine very easily. Then I played with eliminating our afternoon feeding to see if it affected her sleep. She went straight to bed like a trooper without it! After about a month of that, I eliminated her morning nursing. No problem sleeping there either. Then we were down to our evening nursing, which I was very reticent to give up because it was nearly the only thing that worked to help settle her down at night. Then chance intervened. It just so happened that I had two evening events booked on consecutive nights. The first night, Greg stayed home with her. I had a bag of breast milk in the freezer, and told him he should give it to her if she signed "nurse" (yes, she'd lift Greg's shirt up too, if he were the only parent around) or was really having a tough time settling down without it. He did her evening routine, washing up, reading stories, etc. She rubbed her eyes, he put her in the crib, said good night, and that was it! The next night, Greg's parents were babysitting, so we told them what happened. I added that if she needed her bottle, then by all means they should give it to her. Clara was as cooperative as ever, and they had the same experience Greg had. She went to sleep all by herself without ever missing the milk.
So, that's how Clara, at exactly 15 months old, came to wean herself. I still have that pumped milk in the freezer to this day.
posted by Shannon @ 10:31 AM
1 Comments:
Really, Clara decided, more or less, that it was time. Or rather, her interest in table food and play far outweighed her patience for staying in my lap to nurse. When we did nurse, it was never more than for just a minute or two. It seemed like she didn't need to nurse anymore, but it was just part of our routine. So, I just gradually stopped offering, and she rarely asked. And I must say, it makes it so much easier for me to be away now that I don't have to pump. I'm glad we nursed for as long as we did since it did help with avoiding food allergens and boosting immunity. I felt like the timing was right to wean, and fate stepped in and did the rest!
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