our little man

6.23.2008

and he's done...

we reached a pretty big milestone last week - i think it's safe to say that ben has weaned himself. since he started sleeping through the night a little over a month ago, he's been down to nursing just once before bed. our routine got a little messed up when adam's work schedule changed and i had to put both kiddos to bed by myself. ben had a hard time adapting and we never got back into a successful nursing pattern. he was just too interested in whatever sophie was doing or what else was going on. he would latch on for a few minutes, sometimes less than a minute, and that would be it. and then for the last week or two, he'd been literally just latching on for a minute or so and occasionally would even just turn away and say "night-night." so i knew the end was near. i decided that i'd continue to offer before bed until he'd turned it down three nights in a row and then i'd just stop offering him. the third night was last sunday - so it's been a week since then. with the exception of one evening early in the week, he hasn't asked to nurse at all so i'd say he's officially done now.

i was honestly hoping he'd go longer - but the truth is that i really wanted a true child-led weaning experience and that's what i got. i wanted to let him do it on his own timetable - and even though i'd imagined that would mean he'd go longer than sophie (who was very gently weaned at 19.5 months because I was 7 months pregnant and chickened out at the idea of tandem nursing) that's ok.

i've been pregnant and/or nursing for the past 4+ years - it's weird to have that part of my life over now. and it's hard to believe that my little baby isn't really so little anymore. i'm proud to have nursed him as long as i did and to have given him all of the benefits of breastmilk for so long, as well as having shared such a special relationship with him. but i'm also proud that he's growing and becoming more independent.

posted at 6:49 AM by aimee // 0 comments