Thursday, March 18, 2010

They're real, and they're spectacular

I've got these red scratch marks on my chest right around my neckline.

They are are battle wounds, people.

Now that X has reached the very old age of 1, he has discovered some important truths: he has finally realized that, those things? The ones that have fed him EVERY DAY OF HIS ENTIRE LIFE? Yeah. They're permanent. And they live under my shirt. ALL THE TIME!

Such excitement! Such a thrill!

(I mean, to me, it's like, duh, dude, what took you so long to figure it out? But hey - we can't ALL be geniuses. A third child has to get the leftover brains.)

This means that X has now entered into that annoying endearing stage where he tugs at my shirt and claws at me - shouting DIS! - whenever he feels he needs a little something something. It doesn't matter if we're home or, say, at the checkout counter at Target.

The boy wants what he wants when he wants it.

He also, after pulling my shirt away from my body, will peer down into the contents of my bra. Upon seeing that THEY'RE STILL THERE, he then lets out a triumphant laugh. AHA! HAHA!

Thing is, I'm trying to start the weaning process. Which is going to be tougher to do since, if I tell him "no," he will be all, "Ha ha, you're funny, what do you mean "no?" They're right there! I can see them! Ha ha! Now give it to me now or I will throw the Mother of all Tantrums. Oh yes I will" and so on.

I have never been lucky enough to be in the position to wean at a year. I had to "force wean" my other two much, much earlier because of their allergy/sensitivity issues. I wouldn't even be thinking about weaning, but I've been off dairy, soy, wheat and eggs for over a year and, frankly, that's 364 days too long.

It's time for X to fully embrace the sippy cup.

So I'm asking you, blogosphere, for your best weaning tips. FYI: He has not had a bottle since I went to a Springsteen concert the first week of April - when he was one month old. So we need to wean to a sippy.

Thanks. I know you won't let me down!

13 comments:

Julie said...

I started putting the boys in the high chair when ever it was time to eat. So they started to associate the chair with food more and with me, less. I weaned lunchtime-ish first, then snack, then morning. Night I held onto longest.

...or so I think I remember.

Also, keep a sippy with you all the time. So that as soon as he starts clawing when its NOT time to BF, you hand him a sippy and just say "here it is!"

I don't know. It was a while ago. But these ideas seem familiar.

Oh, and when I'm leaking at Blogher because I tried to wean and my tips didn't work, remind me I shouldn't give advice. :)

Cheryl said...

Thanks, Julie! Right now he's nursing when he wakes up, before nap #1, before nap #2 and before bed (he's still on the 2-nap sked, but I know those days are limited) AND right now we can only give him rice milk, and he's not so into it (it's also 99 percent fat-free so it's not filling at all).

Maybe I should start with the morning one? Not sure!

Tonya said...

With both of mine, the very last one to go was the bedtime nursing.

Emily NEVER took a bottle or pacifier, so she was weaned straight over to sippy cups. I would put other liquids (juice, water, milk) in the sippy during the day. At bedtime, I'd nurse, then fill up a (non-leaky) sippy with water and take baby and water to the crib. If there was any middle-of-the-night munchies, the water sippy was right there. (P.S.: keep breakables away from sippy-throwing-range!)

As for the public stuff, I tried to make sure that she was either already somewhat sated or that I'd armed myself with other distractions.

Praise, praise, and more praise can't hurt, either. Lots of "wow, you're getting SO BIG! You can drink from a cup like a big kid now!"

Whenever I'd get the shirt grab (in public, the neck one is better than the cuddle that turns into the "I grabbed the bottom of your shirt, let's give everyone a show!" maneuver), I'd just take her hand and give it a kiss, or put a toy in it, or a snack, or otherwise try to distract her. I'd also ask if she wanted her sippy, because she was almost too big for that now.

As I weaned her for that final bedtime feeding, I transitioned from "boob time" to "snuggle and whisper" time. For me, the thing I loved most about nursing was the snuggling while making that extended eye contact, so I wanted to find a way to keep that a little longer even when I was done with the nursing. So she'd get the sippy instead of me as I held her just the same.

Hard to believe that my "baby girl" will be Sweet 16 this summer! It seems like just yesterday I was nursing her, looking down into her big beautiful eyes, singing and talking and laughing. Wow. It goes by sooooo fast.

Cheryl said...

Thanks for the advice, Tonya! I definitely love the bonding time. But I'm over the other parts of it! LOL

I will try to do the distraction with sippy cup strategy. I hope he goes for it!

Emily is going to be SIXTEEN?!?!?! Clearly you were a child bride first time around! ;)

Jill said...

OMGosh! Love the title! I just saw that you posted on my blog too:)

I have to say that I feel your pain. I felt like I ate like a bird while I nursed my last child for 12 months. I was able to wean him onto "normal" foods as I weaned him off of me :)

I agree with the other comments. Start transitioning with the middle of the day feeding first & work your way to just bed time nursing.

One trick I used was to NOT put the valve in the sippy cup at first.. so my kids understood that there was milk in there. It didn't take long. Then I used the valve from then on.

Good luck! Keep us posted.

A 2 Z said...

Bonjour,

What I little munchkin! My kids are big now and the only memory I have left of nursing is the shape of my breasts now which I wont get into. My two kids looked so much like their dad when they were young but as they are getting older they most definitely look more like me. So just be patient LOL

Anne-Marie rrom SITS

Amanda and Amanda said...

Oh the weaning process....Your post made me laugh till I cried with memories and then, all of a sudden PANIC that I will have to be doing this again very soon once #3 is born....ohgosh.

I was one of those people who nursed baby #2 into toddlerhood mainly because of her health issues. She was severely dairy allergic as well as exceptionally small. So, when we weaned I was able to do some rationalizing with her. I remember we got rid of all the day time nursings first...The bed time one was the last to go, and the hardest to break.

Keep us posted and let us know how it goes!

Cheryl said...

HH - No valve in the sippy (we got new ones, the valve ones leaked too much!). Now I feel bad b/c he just got over the double ear infection only to have this new virus that gives him blisters on his throat! I'll be nursing til he's at this rate! AAACK!

Anne-Marie - Oh yes. The saggy baggy post-nursing boobs. That's why I haven't bought a new bra yet even tho I desperately need one: I know these are going to shrink away like a deflated balloon the second he's weaned!

MJ - Yep, X is full of sensitivity issues. Sigh. Why is it so hard on these poor little ones?

Wendy said...

I just wanted to thank you for the sweet comment on my blog. It really meant a lot that you took the time to stop by. :)
As for weaning, I wish I had some advise - my son was a bottle baby from the get-go and among his litany of issues we experienced, this was not one of them (helpful, aren't I?) Your son is beyond precious. Good luck!!!!

Tracie Nall said...

I weaned my daughter straight to a sippy cup at a year. She started eating some baby food at about 9 months, so it was kind of easy to differentiate the "food time" from the "breast food time" and then I put something nice in the sippy cup that she would really like (a little bit of very watered down, organic juice....and honestly, she loved water even when she was little) once the sippy cup seemed like a treat, it was pretty easy to distract her......I did hold her in my lap with a blanket and cuddle with her during the sippy cup time just like I did for breastfeeding, so she still felt the same attention and cuddles....she was really pretty easy. The bedtime feeding was the last to go, and it was a little harder, but mainly as long as she got the hugs and cuddles along with the sippy cup, she was pretty happy!

Here via SITS...have a great Saturday!

Lucy said...

I will come back to this post in a few months when I wean my little guy. Lots of great advice!!!

Cheryl said...

Wendy - Thanks!!!

Tracie - So glad it went well for you! He loves water, too. We were away this weekend and he definitely wanted to nurse less as he was distracted by the hotel room ;) But he didn't eat much real food b/c of his sensitivity issues, so he ended up nursing a lot on the way home. Ack!

Lucy - hope your weaning goes more smoothly than mine! ;)

The Mayor! said...

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Sorry, it's just ALLLLL SOOOOO familiar!! Just be grateful your hubby doesn't paw at you like that....in public anyways!! I too went right to cups, one more thing I learned with 4 kids, skip all the "in between" steps of stuff, or else you wind up training them again! Like potty's....why?? So I can THEN train them to the toilet??? Seriously, 4 kids LOL! Anywho, you've inspired me...& not just because we both wrote about boobs this week! I will ponder my best weaning tips for you, possibly even blog about them right there with my toilet training tips LOL! :-D

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