The Score Continues...Mom-0

I had a moment of inspiration and decided that I was going to wean H from her morning nursing. She has informed me that this is a bad idea.

As you’ve read in my long sob story, nursing started out rough. But now I love our time together and since H really only nurses first thing in the morning, before nap, and before bed, it’s no big deal. It makes her happy, it puts her to sleep, and it makes me happy. But of late I was coveting the extra 15 minutes I could get in my morning if we cut out that feed. All the other feedings we’ve dropped have gone by with nary a whimper, so I figured a little distraction and some repetition would do the trick.

The first day was fine. I came in to get her up and gave her a sippy cup. In fact, the unexpected bonus of this little weaning adventure was that I discovered that if I get to her early enough after she wakes up, then she may not have soaked her diaper yet. Normally the overnight diaper is heavy enough to knock someone out and wet enough that I’m constantly amazed pee doesn’t squeeze out of it just by picking it up. On this morning, it was surprisingly light. A trip to the potty was very successful. I patted myself on the back for being the kind of awesome mom who not only starts weaning but finishes potty training at the same time. Visions of my articulate, beautiful, weaned, and potty trained daughter flashed in my head.

Then on day two H was kind of cranky. On day three, she cried so much during breakfast she almost couldn’t eat. But she got over it. I reassured myself. Day four I made Daddy get her up for the first time in her entire life. It was glorious! I still felt like we could make this work.

Today was day five. I am not too much of a push over. H likes to have a good tantrum at least once a day (when she starts getting tired), and I’ve grown quite immune to them.  But the crying from the moment she wakes, so hard that she can barely eat is no good. How can you enjoy breakfast if you’re crying through it? I could not in good conscience continue my little experiment. In the middle of cereal we went back upstairs and nursed. Then we came down and finished cereal with a smile.

This, I take it, is what they mean by child-led weaning (not exactly, but it’s certainly clear who wears the pants in this nursing relationship). I know that there will be a time when she wakes up without a thought for me. She took her own time to do everything else, I’m not sure why I thought that nursing would be any different. In the meantime, I will continue to get more reading done in the mornings and enjoy my cuddly, happy morning nurser.