The End of an Era

Elijah is officially weaned and has been for about a week now. We made it to seventeen months and I feel really good about that.

The cool thing is that Elijah completely self-weaned; I had nothing to do with it. I suppose as far as quitting something that has been a part of your life for seventeen months (or in Elijah's case his whole life!) it couldn't have gone any better. He simply didn't want to do it anymore and I couldn't force him to do it. It was a gradual process and painless for both of us - well, except for that moment last weekend when I saw Elijah's boppy pillow and got all teary-eyed because I knew our nursing days were over.

Believe me, I was ready to be done with it too, but it's simply another reminder that our little boy is growing up. If I'm going to be honest, I'd have to admit that I'm really glad it's over. Don't get me wrong. I know it was a blessing to be able to do it and I haven't forgotten how hard we fought to get it started in the first place. But now that we're finished with nursing, I get to do some of the things I've given up for the past 2+ years. A bit selfish, I know, but it sure was nice to have an amaretto sour this past weekend. And, I've been really enjoying eating cheese again. I haven't had dairy for six months and I love cheese. Let's just say that I'm a happier person and I think Elijah is too.

Here's the other cool thing – self-weaning seems to be a good sign of Elijah's cognitive development. From what I understand a lot kids self-wean around his age if they haven't been weaned already (not that nursing for longer is a bad thing cognitively). To me, though, it just shows that he thinks he's too busy to bother with nursing, which is actually a good thing. He's letting us know what he wants and needs, which is definitely great.

The little man is turning into, well, a little man! (Look how little he used to be!)

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