Weaning - Etta has been adapting just fine but probably she does not like this word. This past week we have been weaning her from her before-bed nurse. So now there are only two left: when she first wakes up and after her 2nd nap. I really don't foresee a big problem with weaning her completely, but I am not in a hurry for that. I am, however, ecstatic to no longer have to be physically present every night for her bedtime. Since she never took to the bottle, and since nursing was such an established part of her bedtime routine, if I had a night time event (book club, date night, etc) it could not start until she was in bed. It was the same with Addie when she was a baby. I reminded myself that it was just a small sacrifice in the grand scheme of things and that my girls were getting breast milk which was wonderful for them and I was bonding with them. But I did get sick of that constraint and I am looking forward to a babysitter coming at like 5:30 instead of 7!
So that did not explain my distaste for the word. The process is fine. The word itself makes me think of farms and cows. I just wish there were a different word for the process. Weaning describes the act perfectly, but I wish there were a happier word for it. Wean: deprive, estrange, alienate, alien, disaffect.
Those words are all much worse and make me feel like a bad mom. I am depriving my child of something (milk), how cruel of me. How can I deprive a child as cute as this?
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