Amita June is reaching a point in her life where it's time for us to start weaning her from breastfeeding. Most parents do this much earlier, if they breastfeed at all, but we've been devotees of attachment parenting for a while, and we wanted to give her as much time nursing as possible.
But at 15 months, she's ready to start doing things like sleep through the night on her own, drink only cow's milk, and be a little more independent. So, this month we're starting to do some night weaning.
What does this mean? First of all, Maj is no longer nursing the baby to bed. She now is doing the main pre-sleep prep work (a bath), does a short nursing period, and then hands the baby off to me for some reading, songs, and walking down to sleep. This will gradually move into fewer, shorter nursings before sleep, and ultimately to none.
Once that connection has been broken, I think the main point of nursing will be occasional comfort nursing during the day. Gradually, that will fade out. And then there will be none.
It's kind of exciting to be the Primary Sleep Guy for the baby. We're re-connecting in a way that we haven't in a while -- I was only putting her to bed occasionally for a quite a while. It's also been pretty successful so far, which has been good.
tags: amitajune weaning sleep parenting babies
Souper → Bruncher
When Maj and I first moved to Montreal, we had help from some friends who we'd known from before. After we moved into our apartment, we invited them all over for dinner to say thanks. In order to get to know people in our new hometown, we also asked each person to bring someone we didn't know, so we could make new friends.
The event was so successful, and we met so many new people, that we made it a regular occasion. For almost three years, every Tuesday night we invited friends over to our home for dinner (or souper in Quebecois French), with an open invitation to meet new friends and interesting people. It was a great way to meet interesting folks in Montreal, and most of our best friends here we met through these dinners. We were even profiled in Elle Quebec as a model for how to make new friends.
But when the baby was born, we just couldn't manage to organize dinners any more every week. Cooking for 20+ people isn't that expensive, especially since we're pescevegetarians and that kind of food just isn't that costly. But it does take a lot of time and energy, and with a newborn baby we just didn't have either.
Now, with Amita a little more than a year old, we're trying to start up our regular home parties on a more manageable scale. We're doing brunch at our house on Sunday afternoons around 3PM, with a much smaller list of invitees, requests for RSVPs, and a clear indication that the event only goes until bedtime. (Our Tuesday night dinners would occasionally stretch until after dawn.)
It seems to be working pretty well; we've had a lot of fun at the last couple of brunches we've had. And brunch is a much more laid-back meal than a dinner party, anyways. (Although John Usher asks incredulously, "By what stretch of the imagination is 3PM between breakfast and lunch?") I'm looking forward to our next brunch (tomorrow) a lot, and I hope to get many more friends over to our home in the next few months of Sundays.