I have made it 28 hours without nursing Carter. I have been ready to quit for a while, but Carter has not been ready. He is so attached to me. I love his snuggles and that he always wants to be right next to me, but I also know that the longer I nurse him, the more attached he will get and the harder it will be to quit. My goal was to nurse him until he was 12 months. I made it to that goal back in June. I've been going back and forth about weaning him ever since. Well, it's finally time. I'm ready. He'll adjust. Actually, so far he is doing okay. He had a 30 minute melt down before dinner last night. He followed me around the house and clung to my leg while screaming. He threw himself on the floor a couple times while yelling mamamamama... It was heartbreaking, but we made it through it. I offered him a sippy cup with strawberry milk, a bottle with ice cubes and water, and finally he chose the milk in the straw cup that Ethan was drinking. Whatever makes our little man happy, except for nursing. These next couple days are going to be rough, but we can do it.
Last night I gave him a bottle before bed. He drank about 2-3 ounces after fussing for a while. I know that giving him a bottle is a bit backwards since he's been using a sippy cup for about 5 months, but I wanted to give him something that resembled nursing to try to make the transition smoother. It worked for bed time. Then he woke up at 1:40am. I sat in his room and tried to keep him happy and offered him a bottle until 2:00am. Then Cory came in and I left the room. Cory gave Carter a sippy cup instead of the bottle. After a couple minutes of refusing the cup, Carter finally gave in. He drank a little bit, handed Cory the cup, then laid back down and went to sleep. He fussed a little around 2:45am, but quickly put himself back to sleep. We had to wake him up at 6:00am this morning. The night went a lot better than I was anticipating!
This is such a hard decision to make. I knelt next to his crib when I put him to bed last night. I watched him drink from his bottle and I cried. I cried because my little baby is growing up. He won't need me the way he has for the past 14 1/2 months. I know I can't keep him small forever, but he is my baby.
We can do this... hour by hour.
