No More Milk Milk!

After breastfeeding Clare for almost 21 months, I have decided to start to wean her off for good today. I have been wanting to since last Dec hols as I want to wean her off before another baby comes along. I do not want Clare to think that she has to stop nursing because of the baby.

However, I kept procrastinating about it. I Each time, I would think of a reason to validate why I should not wean her off. These days, Clare is nursing more and more often as I am on NPL and Mummy's milk is available 24 hours and it seems too hard for her to resist. =p I decided to wean her off before she gets overly addicted to nursing for comfort.

I thought very hard over how I should wean her off. I tried several times asking her not to nurse, giving her all sorts of reasons from she is a big girl now to Mummy's breasts are painful. She would not buy any of these and would cry so badly that I had to let her nurse.

I decided that given her character, she has to be the one to decide that she does not want to nurse anymore. I discussed with Damon and my mother and we decided to apply some lemon on my nipples and see if Clare could take the taste.

Before her afternoon nap, she asked to be nursed. I told her that milk milk has spoilt. As always, she was not convinced. She latched on and had a shock. In fact I would say she was a little frightened. She ran to my mother and hid behind her. I then asked her if she wanted to try the other side. She was hesitant at first. Then very cautiously, she stuck out her tongue to taste the other side. Hee... Then Clare made the biggest decision of her life and stood by her decision from then on. She said she did not want milk milk anymore and asked for bottle milk.

At night, when it was time to sleep, I asked her if she wanted milk milk. She said no and asked for a bottle of milk. After drinking her milk, she tossed and turned for half an hour before dozing off.

Clare was waking up every 2 to 3 hours to nurse previously. So not surprisingly, she woke up at 1 plus. She fussed and cried for 5 minutes and she went back to sleep after patting her. The same thing happened at 3 plus. At 5 plus, she asked for a bottle of milk and fell asleep after taking a few sips. =)

Hee... I would say the whole process was much better than I expected and it was quite 'painless' for her. From this weaning off, I realised that Clare is a very rational child. She has the strong will to reject what she has loved doing so much. Throughout the day, she would tell me that milk milk has spoilt and she had to drink bottle milk.

In fact, I was the one who missed nursing her. Even though it could be tiring at times, I love the way she would look at me when she was in my arms nursing. Those were such magical moments that I will never forget. Especially, during those moments in the still of the night, it was as if there were the only 2 of us, enjoying each other's company. I cannot describe the feeling. It just made me feel very blessed and 幸福. Of course, there were the painful moments when I had mastitis 3 timesand blocked ducts countless times. But I am glad that I breastfed Clare for almost 2 years as we have developed such a strong bond between us.

I love you so much Clare! Thank you Lord for blessing me with such a priceless and treasured gift.