Not me, not anymore. That's right: Simon is finally weaned! For the last month or so since I've gone back to work, he has only nursed morning and night. Then for the last two days only at night, as I've been working towards weaning him. The current bedtime routine is that he has a bedtime snack, then a bath, then I nurse, then I read him some books. But tonight, when I put him in the nursing position, he fussed and just kept trying to reach for the books. Specifically, he really wanted this book called "Open the Barn Door" where each page has a question about who says what, then you lift the flap and see the animal that makes that noise. So both symbolically and literally, Simon passed on me in favor of a cow. Although, literally is not quite accurate, since he's currently drinking soy milk (as we still try to figure out the allergy thing).The other important developments that have led to this are that he now drinks cold milk from a sippy cup, he sleeps through the night consistently, and he is doing a pretty good job eating table food. We're still feeding him baby food too, but the ratio will gradually shift until he is eating entirely table food.
So three days shy of 14 months, I'm finally free of nursing. Alice had spontaneously self-weaned right before she turned 12 months when I had been nursing her 4-5 times a day, so with her, I never realized the last nursing was the last nursing since it happened so suddenly (although it was not unwelcome, since I had wanted to get pregnant again soon). But with Simon, I knew the end was near, and I knew that I probably wouldn't know that a particular nursing was the last one, since he would probably just decide he was done with it one random night. I was thinking all of this last night as I was nursing him so I made a point of enjoying his little chubby cheeks as he nursed. And it turned out that was in fact the last time.
After I put him to bed, I went out and told Zac what had happened. I cried a bit: a mixture of sadness that that part of my life was permanently over, but also some relief that it was finally over and had gone smoothly. I'm free! My child can survive without my sustenance! At the rate he'd been going, I felt like we'd never get to this point, so overall I'm happy that he has made so much progress this past month.
