Weaning update.

A process that all Brian and I both envisioned to be quite difficult has proven to be immensely easier than we expected. After last Thursday's AM nursing session, Maia hasn't had her mama's milk since (cow's milk, by the way, is "cold milk" in Maia's world).

The crucial element in the ease of all this: the "bye bye nook-uh cake"! I got the idea for having a little celebration from a few of the websites and books I've read that support extended nursing, and my goodness did it ever work! This idea treated weaning like what it is: one of a child's first important rites of passage. That cake, and the little party that accompanied it, is all the reminder that Maia needs that we said goodbye to nursing together. She's asked for milk a couple of times in the last week, but as long as Brian or I reminds her of the cake and the party, she's absolutely fine with the situation as it is. No tears, no resistance . . . just Maia saying "Maia had some bye-bye nook-uh cake! Nana had some, too! Mama, too!" and all is well. At the moment she mentions it, we'll have this little conversation, I'll give her some good cuddle time (AKA "snorgles" in this house), and we'll move on with our day together.

Were Maia not this verbal right now, I'm not sure how the process would have gone. Well, to be honest, it probably wouldn't have happened yet. I've known for quite a while that I would wait to end nursing until the point when I felt that she and I were able to talk about it, and she was able to verbally express some sort of understanding of what's going on. I wasn't going to wean her until we came to that place.

From Thanksgiving