Scarlett is Weaned

Well, it’s official. My youngest darling is weaned! And now that I think about it, it wasn’t really that hard because I went the slow route of eliminating feeds until she was down to one.

I had wanted to nurse all my kids until 18 months. I thought that would be ideal. But I got pregnant with Lila when Logan was 9 months old. By the time he was 11 months I began weaning from the breast because my body literally felt like it was falling apart. Since he was still so young, I put him on bottles so the switch wasn’t too hard to do.

It was the same with Lila, only she was 10 months old when I got pregnant with Scarlett. Both Logan and Lila were weaned from the breast by their first birthday, yet they continued with bottles, mainly at night, until about 20 months. (You can read the complete details of their weaning process in this post.)

On to Scarlett: When her birthday rolled around I didn’t even consider weaning. I wanted to nurse her to a point when I wouldn’t need to put her on bottles. Around 14 months she sort of became aware of nursing. I guess up until then it was a need, then it just became fun because she would ask for it at odd times. She even came up with her own word for it: boof. She would lift my shirt and say “boof, boof” whenever she wanted it. It was cute.

I don’t think I ever really made a firm “I’m going to wean now” decision. I just slowly got it down to morning, before nap, and before bed, plus at least twice in the night, then before I knew it, she wasn’t asking for it at all in the day. About 3 weeks ago I eliminated her before bed nurse. She was already having a cup of milk and a snack so she didn’t really need to nurse as well.

The only one I didn’t know how to cut was the middle of the night one, and at times it was two or three times, depending on her moods. Also, I was always so tired that I often didn’t even remember taking her out of the crib and feeding her, but I know I did. She would be sleeping peacefully beside me and I’d be like “how did you get here?” Ha. Tired mommy brain doesn’t work too well at night.

So I continued letting her nurse at night. In the last week though, she was only waking once for it. Then the other night she asked for water. That was it. I knew she was ready. Last night I made sure to have her sippy cup by the bed and when she woke, I gave her water. She didn’t even ask to nurse.

So I guess I got my wish: I nursed one of my babies until 18 months. When the older two were that age I would have felt weird offering them the breast, but with Scarlett, is has felt weird to not offer it. I still can’t believe I am over and done with breastfeeding! And that I don’t have to deal with night bottles! Yes! Success all the way!

Now on to the next hurdle: sleeping in her own bed all night. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Posted by Mercy Langille on June 6, 2012

https://dayslifedreams.wordpress.com/2012/06/06/scarlett-is-weaned/