My daughter is 17 months old and I’ve been very slowly weaning her from breastfeeding since her first birthday.  Basically, I was dropping feedings every few weeks or so until I was down to these last three, morning, before nap and before bed.  Now it is time to tackle the big ones.

Since birth Maya has nursed to sleep for naps and bed.  Now that she is older she often doesn’t fall asleep nursing anymore.  Sometimes she’ll drift off but is always awake when I lay her down in her crib and she puts herself to sleep.  I wanted to make sure she was putting herself to sleep well and no longer really nursing to sleep before I tackled eliminating the before sleeptime nursing sessions.

So, today is the big day.  Day number one of  weaning her from her before nap nursing session.  Here is what I did:

• Got her ready for her nap as usual; grabbed her blankie, gave the kitties a kiss, changed her diaper, set up her crib and closed the blinds in her room.
• Sat down in the chair in her room with her in my lap and read her a story.
• Gave her a big hug and a kiss and laid her down in her crib.

It went pretty well, much better than I expected.  A few times while we were reading her book she tried to close the book and signed that she wanted to nurse.  I explained to her that “mommy’s milk” was all gone right now and that we were going to read a story instead.  When I laid her in her crib she was fine and was no longer asking to nurse.  She did start to cry when I left the room but had stopped and was sound asleep within 5 minutes of me leaving the room.

All and all a very successful first day.  I’ll let you know how tomorrow goes.  Let’s hope it goes smoothly and this weaning process is easier than expected.

I’d love to hear any of your advice or your own weaning success stories.