A Wean-away, A Wean-away!

There's been a lot of weaning going on at our house lately! :) On January 12, I had a work conference that I had to attend that was three hours away, and eight hours long (and not kid-friendly, of course!). So, with this deadline in mind, the second week of December, I started cutting out Buhba's second nursing of the day (around noon-ish). This went pretty smoothly. My milk supply seemed to adapt pretty easily, and because Buhba's eating pretty much "normal" food now, he was fine with it too. I did this for a week. Then, the next week, I took out his third nursing of the day (around 5pm). Again, nothing too difficult about it. I did this for about two weeks, because honestly, I was a little sad that it wasn't more of a challenge, and that Bubha could do without me so well! So, up until the new year, I only did morning and night feedings. But, feeling the pressure of the deadline, after the new year, I cut out the morning feedings too. Again, Bubha was fine with this change, but my "feeders" on the other hand had a difficult time adjusting. For a week, I avoided hugging people, or sleeping on my chest. (Now you know why I gave you an awkward high five, if you were one of those people attempting to hug me... ha ha) It was just too painful! But, I made it in time for my deadline, and even though mentally it was hard for me to be away from my little man for so long, we both did fine.

While we're on the topic of weaning, I decided that we may as well get rid of the "bink" at this point too. We never let Buhba have a bink very often anyway, except for when he'd take naps, go to bed at night, on the occasional car ride, and when we were in public and needed him to be quite (ie, church, etc.). With this said, I didn't think taking it away would be difficult. But then it hit: Christmas visits gave us more than just toys, it also gave us huge colds. How dumb was I to try to wean my poor kid from his bink while he was miserable? But, because I was so determined to wean him from his bink and the boobs, I still tried. But, after a few days of a sad, miserable baby, I gave in and gave the bink back. He would NOT let it out of his sight for about two weeks! This may be because of the lack of nursing, or because he was so sick, or both. Or maybe he knew what was up a head, and he wanted to get his bink good-byes in. Anyway, once he was better, I took it away, and neither of us ever looked back! Good bye, old friend!

Back to the nursing: Bubha had his first birthday last week (I'll post more on that later). And I know that the "norm" says to stop nursing at this point, I can't quite bring myself to wean either of us from the late-night nursing session. I never thought that I'd like nursing, but I like the time that it gives us to bond, and I like that he is still dependent on me for something - with all of the new milestones he's hit lately, I feel like he doesn't need me anymore (not true, but that's how I feel!). And the other reason, though very vain, is that I really like that nursing helps me lose weight (I'm not nine pounds under my pre-pregnancy weight!). So, for these various, and possibly ridiculous reasons, I want to keep nursing for a little longer. Is is so bad if I keep going until he's like five? I wonder if his kindergarten teachers would mind me interrupting class because it will time for Bubha's nursing... hmmm. (I'm totally joking...)

Hubby and I are going on a cruise in March (Buhba-free), so for all of you who think I'm totally wacko, I will be completely done nursing by then. So, I'll keep you all posted on how I deal with that... :)