I've given serious thought to starting the process of weaning DD. She will be two in about 5 weeks and I never planned to nurse her this long. I had hoped that she would self-wean but the doesn't seem to be the case and it even feels as if she wants to nurse more during the day when I'm home from work. She typically nurses 3-4 times a day (including nap and bed times) and 2-3 during the night. We co-sleep so the nursing sessions aren't horrible at night but I'm still ready to be done with it.
This past weekend was my first attempt at weaning. My first goal was to cut out all nursing sessions not associated with sleep. On Saturday, DD cried for about 20 minutes when I didn't nurse her at mid-morning. She kept trying to drag me to the "chair" that we normally nurse in. I just refused and sat on a different couch. When she finally calmed down she came and sat on my lap and we just cuddled and I gave her and apple and some water and she was fine. I refused to sit in the chair all day long and she didn't ask to nurse again (except sleep times). That night she only nursed once! On Sunday, I continued to sit on the opposite couch and she didn't ask to nurse outside of sleep times. It was awesome! And around the time she would normally be ready to nurse she actually went and got her sippy cup and drank a whole cup of water. I was so proud of her! And get this....she only woke up once last night and went back to sleep on her own, didn't nurse the entire night!!!
I'm ecstatic at her progress and so happy that she is adapting to the new schedule. I know that it's only been a few days and I expect some regression but I really hope this is leading to a path of being completely weaned by her birthday. Yay DD!!!!
Re: Small Victory
Thanks ladies!
DD did good yesterday but did get sad when I didn't nurse her when I got home from work. She also woke up to nurse twice, but I'm not too concerned about that. I know that as time goes on it will continue to get better.
@eczerkies- yes it is amazing that they start to sleep better when they nurse less!