Archive for July, 2009
Bean Pole
This morning we took Natalie for her 30-month well-visit (only a month late!). Her latest growth statistics are:
27 pounds, 1 ounce (25-50%)
38.5 inches (95%)
After looking back at her 2-year-old height and weight, we realized that Natalie has grown 3 inches in 6 months and gained less than a pound, which confirmed our suspicion that Natalie’s gotten taller and skinnier.
Obviously, she takes after her dad!
But, there are some things she gets from mom. Like the ability to curl her tongue:
Officially Weaned!
Tomorrow will be two weeks since Natalie has nursed. She is 2 years and 7 months old. I had been ready to stop for a while, but feared of emotionally scarring her by weaning before she was ready. For a long time (since she was about 2) she was only nursing twice a day—in the morning and before bed. About 6 weeks ago, I stopped the morning nursing, which had become more and more uncomfortable. Natalie protested a bit, but quickly got into a routine of eating cereal with milk for breakfast.
Ending the nighttime nursing happened almost by chance. The first few nights I hadn’t planned on not nursing, but it ended up that way because we were out late and she was falling asleep in the car on the way home. Then we decided to seize the opportunity. The next few nights I went to bed early and Chris put Natalie to bed. Luckily, she doesn’t seem to miss nursing when I’m not around, but when I put her to bed, it was an assumed part of the routine. Once she was going to bed fine with Chris and hadn’t nursed in a week, I started participating in the bedtime routine again. The first night, she asked to nurse, but I told her that she was a big girl and that it hurt mommy too much. She accepted this explanation easily and went to sleep fine. Since then, she hasn’t asked at all or even mentioned it.
Now we’ve settled into a nice routine of giving her a small sippy cup of milk while we read books together, then she brushes her teeth and puts her pjs on. Then we read one last “goodnight book,” give hugs, kisses, and high-fives, then leave her to fall asleep by herself. Most nights she comes to the top of the stairs and requests something (water, a band-aid, a q-tip because her ears are itchy, etc). But sometimes she’s fallen asleep without any stalling!
I’m glad I nursed as long as I did, especially after all the problems we had in the beginning. And now I’m glad we’re done.
