Initiating mother-led weaning with a 2 year old

[mamacolleen]

For a variety of reasons, I'm planning to do a gentle and fairly gradual mother-led weaning of my 2 y.o. DD, staring fairly soon. About 2 months ago we weaned from 5-6 nursings per day to 3 and I'd like to cut out them as well. She actually did quite well with cutting down and I'm hoping it goes as smooth with the weaning.

She currently nurses at wake-up, naptime and bedtime. I'm planning to cut out one at a time. Not sure if I'll do the bedtime or naptime first and I'll leave the wake-up until the end.

I'm wondering if anyone has any BTDT advice on how to approach talking about this with her. She's very verbal and quite mature for her age. I'm kind of at a loss on how to initiate the weaning conversation with her in a way that helps her see it in a positive light. I don't want to rely too much on the "you're a big girl now" theme because really she's still so little. Also, any tips on how to bring our nursing relationship to a close in a meaningful way that honors the transition in her life and makes her feel special? I'm working on incorporating other things into our bedtime routine that are close and loving that don't rely on nursing so I think that will help.

Thanks for any help.

[savithny]

Honestly, I didn't feel the need to have a lot of conversation about weaning with my 2yo.   I just slowly worked it so she nursed less and less, for shorter and shorter periods, until one day I realized she hadn't nursed that day, and a week later I realized she hadn't nursed in several days.   I'd not really explain the shortening of sessions beyond references either to other things to do or to it being *my* body and *i* needed to do something:  "Okay, done nursing, we'll read a book now!"  or "Mama's got to get up and get breakfast now, so we're done!"      

One thing I did when we were down to morning/bedtime/comfort times was to switch the bedtime routine around so that nursing wasn't last -- rather than bath-jammies-book-nurse (with songs), we did bath-jammies-nurse-book-songs.  It helped that she was getting really into the book part at that age, so I could toss in a few more books to make it more appealing to not be nursing.   I'd always thought that the bedtime nurse would be the last to go, but with both kids it was the first-waking-up morning nursing that was the last one.  

[llwr]

Well for my first, I just stopped offering.  If she asked for the first week or so I'd let her.  Then I'd try to distract and if she asked twice (only happened twice) I'd let her.

My second though, is 21 months and nursing like a newborn.  There's no way I can just not offer.  She asks all the time.  I'll be interested to see what kind of advice you get.  I really do believe in extended nursing, but I'd like it to be a little more on my convenience at this point.