Weaning- part two (after nap feeds)

Now that the night feeds are under control, and his birthday is not too long around the corner I had a bit of a decision to make. A part of me would love to keep feeding him forever. I love the snuggles and the closeness of it, and the quiet time in which I get to hold my little man, and he is happy to be held. He also loves his milk and I didn't want to take it away from him.

On the other hand, society seems to frown on feeding children after two, he wiggles so much when he feeds so it is easy to get really sore nipples after a particularly wiggly session, and there has been medication that I haven't been able to take for over 3 years as it wasn't safe during pregnancy and not during breastfeeding either (apparently it can turn their teeth yellow).

Anyway, after long, emotional talks and decisions, I decided that I needed to bite that bullet and start weaning. It still makes me feel guilty talking about it as we both do love it (I know, you are probably wondering why stop if I like it that much- many pro and con lists were written, I assure you). I figured that cutting out the day feed, the one he gets when he wakes up from his nap, would be the best start. I think he was about 21ish months or so when the first bottle of milk was offered instead of the boob...

He was not happy.

Actually, that is the understatement of the year. He screamed, for about 40 minutes or so. Just screamed the house down and nothing would calm him. Eventually, he took the bottle of milk.

However it was a pattern that repeated itself for about three weeks. That's right, three whole weeks. After every nap he would point to his chair and say 'milk', and scream when I took him out of his room (I wanted him to see his room chair as his mummy feeding chair, and he gets his 'moo moo juice' downstairs). I had to explain over a few days, that he gets his mummy milk in the morning, and he can have it before bed, but after his nap it's 'Moo moo juice' time. He eventually accepted it and the crying stopped. Now, (at 23 months) he actually asks for 'moo moo juice' when he wakes from his nap and is happy to have a cuddle in my arms.n He asks for seconds sometimes, and with the bottle there is less slapping, clawing, scratching, poking up the nose and in the mouth, and pulling of the hair, etc.

Stage two of weaning complete.