Weaning

My goal for breastfeeding was a year. I wanted to make it that far at least. From there I would decide if we needed to continue. I must say, I have loved it. It was best in the winter time when we could snuggle and keep warm together. I also felt like my immunities we protecting him from getting too sick during those winter months.

He's now 15 months and the weather is warmer. I had once thought that maybe we could make it to 18 months, but I think I'm about done. I want to be able to go on an overnight camping trip, I want to not have to wake up at 5:30 for a feeding, I would like not to have to wear a nursing bra. Too much information, I know. The problem is that Levi is not done. Several times a day he asks to nurse and often cries when he doesn't get to. Depending on the time and moment sometimes I give in. I realize that weaning is not a cold turkey thing, it's a process.

The Dr said that we would just drop down to fewer feedings (less than three a day) we do about two or three and then one day he would reject me. So far this has not been the case. He also said that I would be sad. I don't think I will be though. A lot of moms have told me that they miss nursing their child and for sure I enjoyed it very much and I am thankful we were able to... I don't take that for granted at all. But I think I am ready to move on to the next phase of life. :)

How is it that I thought weaning would be this easy, care-free process? I sort of had a picture that one day my supply would go down to nothing and Levi would just be okay with that and we would move on with our lives? Did anyone else have problems weaning? What was your experience with all of this? Some moms say they ran out of their supply too early? What happened with you? Does anyone have any tips in this area?

Levi is sick and nothing is right.

The good side to sickness is that he just wants to be held all the time. This is also the bad side. He also wants to nurse for what feels like FOREVER to me. It feels like he ALWAYS wants to nurse. I'm thankful that we are still doing it because it allows me to pass on immunities to him. Yes, he is 14 months and I'm still nursing, but I'm planning on weaning him soon. After he gets over this coughing and cold mess I think we will begin the weaning process.

He has been peeing on the potty quite a bit lately and I'm pretty amazed at how often he's been able to keep himself dry. With the sickness, however, he has been less of an EC'er as we all would if we were in his shoes. :)

a new trick

Here's something I have learned this week. I don't know if this is okay or not, but when I put Levi on his potty I have his little space heater blowing hot air on him as hard as possible. He almost always pees when I do this. It's like the warmth helps him or something. This afternoon his diaper was almost completely dry when I took it off of him. Then he peed a lot.

Still don't know what to do about the poops though.

Yeah. That's my story

And we are back on the saddle

I've been meaning to post this week. I thought EC was done. Or maybe we were taking a long break. Then, last week I put Levi on his potty and praised him just for SITTING STILL. I was like, "Yeah Levi! Good job!" and then we sat there for a minute and he peed.

He's done it a few more times. He always pees while watching the bath fill. (Ben and I laugh that it's probably the excitement and the sound of the water combined, he just can't help himself and he makes a little puddle in front of the tub. At least it's not IN the tub). So this week I got a brain and put him on his potty while it filled and he, amazingly, peed. We haven't had any poops yet, but sometimes he lets loose of gas when he's sitting on it, so I think that helps.

It's a continual learning and growing process. These past 14 months have gone by so quickly, I thought the potty training process would feel longer. But I think because of all the changes he's gone through: sitting up, scooting, crawling, walking, and a million other things, that potty training hasn't felt like a big deal.

So there's my story for this week. Just watch, next week will be NOTHING. :) But such are the ups and downs of parenting, am I right or am I right?

I started a new blog about my life. I just thought My EC Experience is soon coming to an end. Now that Levi is 14 months, he's not that into the potty. He's very distracted by his new ability to walk and all the things in our house that he can discover. I have a feeling he will be an outdoors man because he LOVES to be outside. He will literally go and stand at the door and scream for us to let him out. I tell him he needs to put on his shoes first, and a coat, so he is very agreeable as I put those on (because he knows what's coming) and I let him out.

Anyways, we still have potties throughout the house, and I will continue to talk to him about going on the potty, but right now he is anything but interested. Maybe I need to pick up my book again. Maybe I have lost hope? I'm not sure.

I will update if anything happens. :) Thank you to all my faithful readers.

My other blog if you would like to "follow" is www.new-mercies-jody.blogspot.com

Diapers, diapers, diapers :-(

Well, if it's ever not been official, it's official now. I hate diapers. I really and truly hate them. I don't know how I would live without them, but I still have a strong distaste for them. I know, I know, it's something that you just have to live with... what would we do without them? They make our lives so much easier, I can go to the grocery store without worrying if Levi will pee on the fresh produce or make a mess in the cart. Yes, they are cleaner in a way, but yesterday... well... Let me just tell you.

Usually Levi just poops once and whatever. Usually I'm pretty aware of what's going on, or I check him often, change him often. Yesterday I lost my brain. I seriously don't know where it went. I went to my mom's house and he had pooped in his diaper, for the second time that day... so surely he was done. (We are rarely EC'ing these days and I'll explain why in a minute). Towards the end of our visit Levi was definitely showing signs of sleepiness, so we rushed home to get to bed. I didn't even think of checking him. I nursed him and tried to put him down but he woke up as soon as I laid him in his bed. Oh well, usually it's just a few cries and then he is out. No, he cried and cried. I kept thinking, "Surely he'll go to sleep in a few minutes." Then he would be quiet for maybe 5-10 minutes, then cry for a few minutes, then scream, but usually he cries the hardest just before he drifts off as if to say, "I'll give one last strong effort before I give up." But this time he didn't drift off back to sleep. (Another side note: I wish I had a video monitor and could see if he really went to sleep or was just sitting quiet and awake in his crib.) Okay, so in the end he didn't sleep at all. I got him up and it crossed my mind to change him but for some reason I didn't. I had dinner to fix, stuff to clean, he seemed okay. I thought his random times of being upset were from his teething he has been doing lately. Well, here's the terrible part, it was 6:30 after we had eaten and everything, we were sitting there, playing with him, watching him play and I realized I hadn't changed his diaper since about one. Yeah. One o'clock. Five and a half hours he had been sitting in, get this, poop. I wanted to cry when I opened up his diaper. Just that guilty feeling and then everything making sense as to why he wouldn't go to sleep, why he was so fussy... His little bottom was red and you could just tell he had been sitting in it for a while. Ugh. It wasn't really stinky, so I had no idea. Now I'm going to be paranoid about checking him.

Okay, we are not EC'ing as much right now for several reasons:
- It's cold, we are all wearing more clothing and which makes it harder to strip down and take the diaper off and get on the cold potty chair. Those little snappy things that snap under his crotch don't make things any easier. But I snap them so he can be warm, otherwise his little belly gets cold.
- He just started walking and could not care less about the toilet. He's so busy exploring and loving this new walking phase that he gets pretty upset when I put him on it. So I think it's best if we back off right now. That way he won't have negative associations with the potty. We still talk about it when he is pooping and mommy and daddy have an open-door policy when it comes to going to the bathroom (I'm sure y'all really wanted to know that, didn't you? Yeah. :))
-The coldness is not conducive to any diaper-free time. It's cold on his little bottom when he runs around without a diaper on. Plus those little t-shirts get wet whenever he pees and I'm not into changing his clothes 3-4 times a day. Not cool.

Okay, just as another side note, as I was washing dishes today and brooding about diapers I will just list off another few reasons to dislike them:
- They are hazardous to the environment, I think it takes about 700 years for one to bio-degrade.
- They remove any awareness of the child's wetness when they pee
- They cost a lot of money. The cloth diapers we use were about 18 dollars a piece, but I found that I am actually SAVING money by using them because the average bargain value diaper is about 20 cents. If I use each diaper 100 times I will have made my money back. But then I need to also factor in the cost of detergent and water... The average person spends about $2500 on diapers in the first two years of their child's life. That's ridiculous. (I do use paper diapers when we go to the nursery or when I remember and bring him to grandma's house, I buy a $10 package of them about every 3 weeks or so.)
- They hold the poop next to your baby's soft, new little baby bottom. I think that might be the worst part for me. We struggle a lot with diaper rashes and sometimes I've realized that my sweet boy is in a bad mood because his skin is hurting him.

Okay, that's my whole rant and rave.

I asked the Lord, "Why? Why did you make this so hard? Is it because of the fall? Would we not have had this problem if it weren't for sin?" We live in a fallen world and so life IS hard, it just is. Maybe potty training is part of that. I keep hearing horror stories of the difficulties of it. I wonder what the other women of the world, who practice EC as part of their lives struggle with in regards to it. I wonder if they hate EC'ing as much as I hate diapers. Maybe they hate having to walk places as much as I hate having to strap my little one into a car seat. Maybe each country and each culture has it's own set of difficulties for a mother to walk through, to persevere through. I'm thankful that I have the future hope of glory and to leave all of this behind someday and live a life of peace with my Savior. May I always teach my children of this great God, always fix our eyes on heaven as we labor through this earth.

Naps

Some days I am convinced I know absolutely nothing about mothering.

Thought Levi needed to go down at 9 but then didn't fall asleep until 10:30 ... and now is awake at 11

And yet he is still such a good little boy.