Bedtime Weaning

     Although I recently mentioned there is no end in sight to Laura's nursing, I have since grown tired of nursing her at bedtime. We have already worked our way from nursing to sleep to nursing to wind down before Daddy puts her to bed. But ideally, I would like the bedtime routine to be just Daddy. Last night she was having an absolute fit at bedtime and I threw up my hands and said, "Enough is enough - I'm not nursing her at bedtime anymore!" So tonight, instead of nursing to 'wind down', we picked three stories, and I read them to her in her dimly lit room. It seemed to do the trick in transitioning her to 'bedtime mode'. She still asked to nurse after, but I told her she was a big girl and didn't need to nurse at bedtime anymore. I brushed her teeth and let Josh put her to bed. She is still awake now, but she is up there chatting away with her bears and will fall asleep on her own soon enough, probably before I finish writing this post.
     I will still continue to breastfeed her during the day, but these bedtime nursing tantrums have really turned me off. A friend of a friend said that, "Breastfeeding is great as long as it is working for both people." I thought that to be a rational stance, so I decided since bedtime nursing was no longer 'working' for me, that it would have to stop. Plus, I won't be able to nurse her every night if I am working in the evenings, and I think it is important that her bedtime routine be consistent. So, at 19 months, I guess I have technically started the weaning process; tonight is the first night of The End of Bedtime Nursing, and it's off to a good start!