Transitions

We've had a lot of transitions lately. All of a sudden, my baby isn't a baby anymore. She's getting to be a big girl.

Ladybug is using the potty all the time now. Over Thanksgiving, she decided it was time to be a big girl. It took four days. I was amazed!

She also wants to do everything by herself and says, "No help, Mama! No help!" a lot. Accompanied by lots of tears of frustration because she's still learning but refuses to allow us to coach her through things like putting on her own clothes. She does it all now. PJs, pants, underwear, shirt, socks, and even wants to put her jacket on by herself. Sometimes she doesn't get it quite right, and she looks a little silly. But she's proud of herself, so I wouldn't take that away from her.

The biggest transition is that she weaned. At 31 months old, Ladybug weaned herself.

It didn't happen quickly. It was very gradual. But accompanied with all the other big girl things that she's doing, it does seem sudden.

At her 2nd birthday last May, she was still nursing 4-5 times a day. I wasn't ready to be done, so I was good with that. Over the summer, she dropped to 3 times a day - morning, naptime, and bedtime. In late August, she dropped the naptime nursing. In September, we did push a little to have her drop the bedtime nursing so that Daddy could put her to bed. We knew that she could go to sleep without nursing because she already did that 1-2 times a week anyway.

So by the end of September, she was down to only nursing first thing in the morning. This was our time. We would get up and have more snuggles on the couch. We would have good conversations too. "Milk cold? Milk hot? No, milk just right."

We started making a distinction between Mama milk and cold milk. She doesn't really like cow's milk. I don't know if it's the temperature or taste difference. She eats lots of cheese, yogurt, and cottage cheese, so I'm not really worried about her calcium intake.

Through the fall, I didn't offer Mama milk. But if she asked, I didn't refuse. On October 30th, she didn't ask. At all. I was shocked. But on October 31st, she did. I was ready for her to wean, but I really wanted to follow her lead. She would know when it was time to be done.

Through November, there was no pattern. She would miss a day here or there. When we started the potty training during the week of Thanksgiving, she skipped four days in a row. Then she nursed four days in a row. Thankfully, my body adjusted to all these changes, although I did have some hormonal shifts that were not nice.

Through December, there was also no pattern. But the days without nursing were starting to out-number the days with nursing. Christmas Eve morning, she asked for milk, but of course was way too distracted when she woke up Christmas morning. She skipped 6 days. New Year's Eve morning, she asked for milk.

And it didn't cross her mind again for three weeks. Then January 19th, she saw a baby nursing on a video and asked for milk. I told her Mama milk was all gone. We talked about how she is a big girl. I asked her if she wanted cold milk. No.

I am so thankful that we were able to wean this way. It was gradual. There were no tears on her part or on mine. We were both ready.

I miss our snuggle time, so I am trying to make sure that we have plenty of other snuggle time during the day. Lots of hugs and kisses. If she needs me to hold her at naptime, I do.

She's still my baby. But she's getting to be such a big girl.