When RJ was just over a year old, we started dropping nursing sessions one by one. I led this process because I knew that come fall semester, I was going to need business hours free of nursing so that I could actually do my work at work and not both at work and at home in between nursing sessions (last year, I'd just about get focused and then it would be time to nurse or pump again and it was exhausting). This was pretty easy for the most part because he was getting to the point where he didn't want to stop playing to nurse, and he loved sippy cups of cows milk. But he loved his morning and evening nursing, so we kept them both and I made the decision that once the middle of the day sessions were cut, the weaning process was going to be solely in RJ's court. Around October or November, RJ decided one morning that he didn't want to nurse. I asked him, "RJ do you want the boobies?" and he simply replied, "no" and went on with his playing. From that day, he pretty much dropped the morning session (which means we can get to school earlier, which helps me get more work done when I have child care and less on the weekend!).The evening nursing was a completely different story - he would be frantically asking for boobies as early as our commute home sometimes! I was still loving it and he was clearly still loving it! So we had a don't offer, don't refuse policy, where RJ would ask for boobies and I would nurse. Then, a couple of weeks ago, on a Friday (the 20th of February maybe), Lance got home just as I was getting RJ into his PJs and the distraction seemed to make him forget to ask and he simply went through the rest of the routine without asking. Since that day, he's been asking for them on average of every 4-5th day or so. It's actually been kind of nice to still be able to nurse him from time to time, but not HAVE to every day. Plus, it seems to be a nice gradual wean for me - I haven't had any pain or fullness or anything. I'm sure the absolute end is near, and I'm looking forward to having my body 100% back, but it's been an absolutely fantastic almost 21 months - both RJ and I have really enjoyed nursing and I am so happy that we've been able to keep it up so long. It was great for bonding and health and even the environment! Now I just hope that he doesn't suddenly start catching every little cold at school as a result! The kiddo really is growing up now!
2 comments:
I know how hard it is to put these feelings into words so the best I can say in response is congratulations and good job. I thought I was going to really miss it as it was "my time" with Jace but our relationship just grew in different ways. He is still my little baby even though we haven't nursed in 6 months.
Gee, I'm still nursing Zach and he catches every cold possible from daycare/Ryan/Lilia/us. I hope it doesn't get any worse when I stop.
How old was RJ when he learned to say "boobies"?
This is unrelated, but why aren't you guys on facebook?
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