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The Weaning Saga

My first baby weaned off herself within a matter of days. So when I started breastfeeding my second baby, I was floating in a confident haze that weaning him would be no problem. Least did I know what lay ahead!

There is no doubt that breastfeeding is a wonderfully rewarding experience, both for the mum and baby. But there comes a stage when you have just had enough. Unfortunately many times, your baby may not agree with you. Being a follower of gentle, baby-led weaning at 18 months I decided it was time to disengage my baby from my boob! However, my son seems to have inherited my stubborn genes and did now much like the idea.

To begin with, I started dropping a day feed, since that seemed the easiest to do. I substituted this with cow milk and started telling my baby that "mama's milk was finished." The first time I said that he looked at me askance, as though his world had come to an end. After several hits and misses, we successfully reached an understanding where during the day he wouldn't fuss for a feed.

Night times were, however, a completely different ball game. Since I co-slept with my baby from the start, most of the time feeding happened with both of us half asleep. I had figured out early on that I would much rather feed on demand than compromise my night's sleep. This also ended up being the main obstacle for weaning.

After endless nights of rocking and singing, patting and crooning, I was ready to give up and adopt other non-so-drastic methods. Then I read this interesting account of a mom on Facebook and decided to give it one last (gentle) try. The next time at night demand was made, I firmly said, "Bruno has finished all the milk." (Bruno being our huge, 8-year-old Labrador!) I kept chanting this through the night and we managed to pass one night without any feeds, and virtually no sleep.

The next morning, my 19-month-old toddles up to Bruno, taps him on the head and says "Bruno, bad boy!" The whole household had tears of mirth streaming down their face, with Bruno looking perplexed as to why he was being scolded!

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