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As I mentioned last week, one of the things I have decided to do to honor the memory of beautiful Maddie Spohr is to walk in her honor at this week’s March for Babies in St. Louis. There are 4 of us, plus our kiddos that are walking for Maddie. I can’t wait. I’m really excited about the event for many reasons including participating in an event to raise money for an outstanding charity and to be doing something to honor the memory of such a precious little girl.
If you are able please make a donation to March for Babies by clicking on the banner above. Every little bit counts, every dollar counts. Help me reach my fundraising goal and help March of Dimes reach its goal of one day having all babies be born healthy.
As i mentioned in my post yesterday, day one was a huge success. She went down well, only cried for a few minutes and slept for about 2 hours. Other than asking a couple of times while we were reading her book she didn’t seem to really miss nursing at all. She was incredibly happy to nurse before bed yesterday though!
Day two was a success as well. She is now napping soundly. It did take her longer to fall asleep, about 30 minutes. Although, she only cried for a couple of seconds today, most of the time she was just talking to her stuffed animals. I had expected it to be a little rougher today as she went down for her nap late due to a lunch date we had with friends, but so far so good.
Today I did the same as yesterday. I:
- Got her ready for her nap as usually; grabbed her blankie, kissed the kitties, changed her diaper, got her crib organized, and closed her blinds.
- I started to read her a story. However, today she wasn’t all that interested in the story, I read a couple of pages and then she just closed the book and pointed at her bed and said “bed”.
- I gave her a big hug and kiss and laid her down in her crib and left the room.
The big success for me was that she didn’t ask to nurse and when she didn’t want to listen to the story she asked to go into her bed. This might be way easier than I had thought it was going to be. I had been prepared for a battle and had been dreading starting this process, but Maya has surprised me again and made me so proud of her.
I’ll keep you posted on our progress.
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.
From the moment my daughter started eating solids at 6 months old she was incredibly picky. She hated all baby cereal, no matter what you mixed in with it. She hated most vegetables, especially green beans (she could smell those things coming a mile away). And, it was pretty hit and miss on the fruit too. Can you believe she didn’t like applesauce, what baby doesn’t like applesauce? The few things I could consistently get her to eat were prunes, peas and this creamy wheat and peaches breakfast by Beech-Nut.
Things did improve slightly when we were able to introduce finger foods. Fruit was a big hit, peaches and grapes being way up there on the favorite list. She loved apples too (who knew since applesauce was such a bust). Anything from the bread group was a big hit too. Veggies were still a big miss, except those peas. No go on any diary either, the kid hated yogurt, she wouldn’t even open her mouth for yogurt.
When Maya was around a year old I knew things had to change. Meal times were becoming daily battles and I didn’t want to start a war over food, I knew that just couldn’t end well. So, I did a few things to see if I couldn’t transform her eating habits.
I did 5 things that really worked to transform my picky-eater. They may not work for you, but if you have a picky-eater yourself you know they’re worth a shot.
- I eliminated a few nursing sessions so that she wasn’t eating close too meal time. I figured she was more likely to try something if she was hungry.
- I let her take control of her eating. Instead of feeding her I let her feed herself. I just put the bowl or plate in front of her and let her have at it. This worked wonders.
- I stopped stressing about how much she was eating. I figured if she was hungry she would eat. This was a lot easier to do since I had given her control of her food.
- I made sure that every meal consisted of at least 1-2 things that she really loves. I found she was more likely to try the other things on her plate when they were next to a favorite.
- I started introducing new foods slowly and stopped getting upset when she refused to eat them. I just put them in front of her, if she tries them great, if not maybe next time.
Although she doesn’t have a huge repertoire of food she loves, she does pretty well. Her meals are pretty balanced and she will eat from every food group, every day. She still loves her peas but has added carrots, tomatoes and sweet potatoes to the list of favorite veggies. If given the chance she would eat fruit and bread for every meal, except breakfast which is all about Raisin Bran cereal. Yogurt is her new favorite morning snack. Cheese and chicken have become big hits, as well as cheese stuffed pasta and turkey cold cuts.
It felt good to have her go from refusing to open her mouth to most foods to looking like this after a meal!!
The biggest thing I did was take the stress out of meal time. I found that as soon as I stopped worrying so much about it and let her control her eating at mealtimes things became so much easier.
Remember Maddie today as her family celebrates her life. Keep her parents, Heather and Mike Spohr in your thoughts.
Little girl, Big life. Rest peacefully little Madeline Spohr.
You can read Heather’s beautiful tribute to her daughter here, and Mike’s equal beautiful tribute here. They were wonderful parents to a wonderful little girl. They were lucky to have her and she was lucky to have them.