Self-Weaning and Achieving Milestones

I find it funny (now, anyways) how I used to stress so much over why Makayla didn't do things when I 'thought' she would.

You know..those milestone charts?

I had a tendency to compare her to other babies..whether it was babies her age now..or myself when I was her age (through my moms baby book she kept, of course)..or babies thats been in our family. 

It was a good reminder to me that God's timing is the best.  Just because we think our child (or anything else for that matter) should be doing things now..doesn't mean that is the right time for them to.  Only God knows when its going to be their time.

Case in point, I wondered way back when, when Makayla would transition from her bassinet to her crib.   I wondered if I'd have a hard time getting her to sleep in her crib..if I'd be so stressed she'd be in another part of the house that I wouldn't sleep myself.  The list went on and on.  I let her go in her bassinet until she let me know she was ready to move on.  And you know what..the transition was perfect for both of us.  She was more comfortable in a bigger environment and I was happy that I didn't have to worry about waking her up getting in and out of my creaky bed!

Same thing went with sitting up.  I thought ok..the books all say 6 months.  So by 6 months, she still wasn't quite there.  But you know..she did that in her own timing too.  Same with crawling.  And pulling up.  And self feeding (she's just mastered that one).  And the sippy cup (mastered that one lately too). 

She'll do the same with standing, then walking too.  But thankfully now God has shown me to not worry so much about those things.  Because He has the perfect timing for her.  Its a good thing.  :-)

We are still nursing..but I've decided that I'm going to let her decide on that one too.  Its funny how in the beginning I was like..will I be able to go 6 months..let alone a year?  How can I keep my supply up?  Can I do it?  God provided and helped us along the way.  It became easier.  Simple.  Easy. 

At 2 weeks (around this time last year actually), I would have said, "Say whaaaaaaaaaaat?" if I had heard myself say that breastfeeding was easy.  Because then, it was far from it.  Sure..we had our easy days.  But we had alot of hard times too. 

I had read numerous articles on weaning and the one thing that stuck with me the most was this.  One article said simply, "it can either be hard on the baby or hard on the momma because one or the other won't be ready".  SO TRUE!  When she neared a year old..I thought Oh..My..Gosh..I'm not ready for this to end!!!  NEVER did I think I'd utter those words.  But its true.  Its our bond.  And its beautiful.  :-)

Sure..it saddens me to think that this too will come to an end..but I know too that we'll be moving on to bigger, better, and funner things.  Like running in the grass, writing in chalk on the sidewalk, fingerpainting, talking back and forth to one another (where she actually makes sense when she talks..lol), and lots of kisses.  And alot more.

Yeah..it'll be a good thing.....