La Leche

A lot of you know that I have been breastfeeding Grace exclusively for the past 13 months. *Gasp!* I know. I. KNOW. When she was 2 months old, nursing was not going well at all, and I decided I would give it another month and if things hadn't improved, I would wean her. Well, 3 months rolled around, and I tried to introduce a bottle. She would have NONE of that. We tried for the next 6 months to get her to drink a bottle, and she REFUSED. Every. Single. Time.

Let me explain how stubborn she was about it. I would plan an outing, and Glen would stay home with the kids and try to feed a bottle to Grace. The first time we tried this she was probably about 4 months old, and I was gone for 7 hours. She drank nothing. I tried it again about a month later, only this time she went 9 hours. Nothing. We tried every kind of bottle and nipple that exists. We tried different kinds of formula. She would not drink it warm. She would not drink it cold. She would not drink it from a cup. She would not drink it down or up.

The reason that nursing does not go well with my children is because they are born with the most sensitive stomachs that I have ever seen (or that their pediatrician has ever seen, for that matter). They have an extreme aversion to all things flavorful (in my diet). For the first 6 months of their lives I cannot eat ANYTHING. No garlic. No onion. No chocolate. No citrus. No tomatoes. No chocolate. No dairy. No spices. No flavor. No chocolate. No nada. If any of this slips into something that I have eaten, the children will scream at me for next 48 hours. While this does aid considerably in losing the baby weight, I start to go loony after a while. I know what you're thinking - why do I breastfeed my babies? I don't know. I guess the main reason is because I fear that because their stomachs are so sensitive, they will not tolerate formula and we would have to buy the super expensive stuff for babies with allergies (Caleb drank a bottle of formula when he was 5 months old and vomited the whole thing). So I always feel like I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place.

So...when Grace was 9 months old, I came to a state of acceptance that she is not going to drink a bottle. I cannot eat whatever I want to. And she is not going to take a full feeding in one sitting. I accepted it. And I felt much better after accepting it. I told myself I would give it 3 more months. Well, her birthday rolled around and I have no idea why I have been dragging my feet. I did introduce everything back into my diet, and yesterday morning I made the decision. She is going to wean whether she likes it or not.

So the whole reason for this long post is to make myself accountable to you, my few readers (I'm with you Kristin, if you post a goal so everyone knows, it makes it easier to follow through...). Yesterday morning I nursed Grace after she woke up, and I did not nurse her again until she went to bed. She was pretty ticked off by the end of the day. And today was the same, no nursing during the day. I'm going continue this for one week, and then I'm going to drop the morning nursing, and so on and so forth. If she gets thirsty enough, she will drink milk, right? That's what I'm counting on anyway. So in 3 to 4 weeks I am planning on being done. Finished. FREE.

I really have no other choice because in about a month and a half I'm going down to AZ for a reunion with my awesome college girlfriends, and I am not taking the kids. So it's about time!