The decision to breastfeed was an easy one. For our family it made sense since I was going to be home on maternity leave for 3 months and I wanted to give my daughter, Seville, the best possible start. We encountered challenges along the way, but with support from friends, family and a few La Leche gatherings, the months passed. Around 9 months I started having thoughts about weaning. However, I did not want to subject Seville to formula, especially after I had worked so hard to build up a milk storage that would see her and her dad through my overnight business travel. So I stayed the course and continued to pump twice a day at work and nurse at every available opportunity, all the time wondering, how will I ever wean my sweet little girl? How would ever be able to deny her something that offered her so much comfort and assurance? So I decided I would wait for her to lead the way and I was prepared to follow her lead, even if that meant nursing her through her toddler years.
We started offering soy milk at 12 months and she took to sippy cups at the baby sitter’s. After work, weekends, and bed times though, were reserved for “nana”. If I was around, there was nana to be had and it started to affect her temperament. Whenever I walked into a room, she would immediately stop what she was doing and run to me for a “pick me up” or fuss about until I offered her the breast. I could see the conflict on her face and in her actions, she wanted me, she wanted to nurse, but she also wanted to move on and her desires came across in the disguise of a very high need couple of weeks that had me researching weaning on the internet and asking everyone I knew how they had managed to get through it with their child.

Seville’s official weaning began with a bite at 13 months. An unintentional, while falling asleep bite, but painful none the less. We could not nurse on that side for a couple of days and even pumping was out of the question for a nipple with puncture wounds. So I decreased the amount of nursings because of pain and she was not objecting to milk from a sippy cup at home. We tried a bottle at bedtime and she accepted it, so I followed her cues and off we went. My husband and I made sure there was always a sippy cup or bottle to offer and she only resisted a couple of times. Once on an evening after work when she woke up in the middle of the night very upset and would not take a bottle, I let her go ahead and nurse. The final time we nursed, she woke up at night and as usual, refused the bottle. I offered her the breast, as I always had, and she nursed for a couple of minutes only to pull off and reach for the bottle.

To have had such a wonderful experience nursing my daughter, I know I am blessed. I feel such joy and relief that she was able to lead the way and communicate to me that she was ready to move on to a new stage in her development. Too many times weaning focuses on what you are leaving behind, rather than what is ahead. Yes, there are many emotions involved and yes, I will miss our nursing naps on Sunday afternoons, but I now know that all those months of nursing have paid off – my baby rose to the challenge of weaning and a toddler emerged in her place, victorious and full of confidence in herself.