We Weaned! Yahoo!!

[dentente]

My darling dd and her razor sharp teeth are now 20.5 months and we finally, gradually weaned to a cup. I am so excited that I got totally wasted on champagne for New Year's to celebrate. It really feels like winning a gold at the nursing olympics, even if this is not the longest anyone has nursed a kid. My dd was never a quiet nurser. After she grew all her teeth her latch got really stong and painful, leaving grotesque teeth indentations and bruises. I cut back and back till she only nursed to fall asleep and I cut those to a few minutes each side towards the very end. She fortunately eats like a clydesdale so she lost no weight.

Her last nursing was two weeks ago. Neither of us are looking back. This was a long and beautiful thing, nursing my first child. I would do it the same way again.

I'd like to thank my dh, my friends, la leche league, this bb and mother nature herself for all their help.

Denny (making up for years of teetotaling with a lovely glass of Sangiovese)

[peggy]

Congratulations!!

peggy

[Mothernature]

I cried when I read this!

Congrats,
Lisa

[rwikene]

teeth marks hmmm that sounds familiar:

My DD seems to have super grip with her teeth (top ones that is) and when I try to detatch her she just bites down harder and tries to suck my nipple through her tightly bitten down teeth....OOOOWWW!!! My nipples have been so sore this last week that I too have thougth of weaning...but alas, I love it and so does she, we will continue for now

[oceanmommy]

We are just starting what I hope to be a gentle, gradual weaning process.

Congrats to you ! thanks for sharing.

[dentente]

You can do it without too much trauma...

Basically it involves reducing the amount of time they nurse to one session (bedtime) and then cutting short the nursings and introducing the cup. We used a solid bedtime ritual of cuddling and stories to lessen the insult of the increasingly brief nursings. I won't say there weren't a few tears and protests but they were short-lived. The love and the attention were there without fail and my dd figured out she would get just as much attention regardless of whether she nursed or not.

The freedom from nursing is so fabulous I want to do a little jig of joy sometimes. Some women love nursing and I did not mind it too much but I never actually loved it. I did it with the same dogged determination that people change diapers or walk an endlessly energetic dog. It must be done. My daughter's endless kicking and biting made it very hard to love but I have no doubt in my mind that to feed her any other way was just not right for us. Yes. I was a boob-martyr heh heh.

Denny

[moon child]

CONGRATULATIONS