The end of an era

Alexis is officially weaned.  She turned 17 months old on Saturday, and I breastfed her for the last time a few days before that.  I have mixed feelings about it, as I'm sure most moms do.  I really enjoyed breastfeeding and the quiet time that it allowed Alexis and I to have together.  But I also enjoy the flexibility that I now have, especially at night time.  Now that I'm not breastfeeding her, if I need him to, John can be solely in charge of putting Alexis to bed.  I think I need to organise a girls' night out!

I'm really proud of myself for lasting so long.  I had the goal to exclusively breastfeed Alexis until she was six months old (I practically did this; she didn't have any solids until she was six months and only had formula for the first time a week before that), and then the goal to continue to breastfeed as needed until she was at least one year old (I definitely surpassed that one).  I wanted to write down how I weaned Alexis, because I'm pretty sure that by the time I have to do it again I won't remember exactly what I did:

I started introducing Alexis to cow's milk just after she turned one.  Even though I knew I wasn't ready to wean her, I wanted her to get used to the idea of drinking milk from a cup.  But, she hated it.  Every time we tried to give her cow's milk, she would spit it up and start gagging.  I guess I wasn't too surprised, because she never really liked formula either.  She took a goat's milk based formula in a bottle about once a week (usually at church) from age six months until she was about eight months, and then after that, she decided she didn't like formula or bottles.  After eight months I couldn't get her to drink any formula (and I tried them all - regular, soy, lactose intolerant, etc) from a bottle or a cup and I also couldn't get her to drink breastmilk out of a bottle, which she did all the time for the first five months of her life.  But, we persisted with the cow's milk and eventually Alexis would drink a tiny bit from a cup.  At 14 months, I was breastfeeding Alexis when she woke up in the morning (before breakfast), before her morning and afternoon naps,* and then at night, before her bedtime (total of 4 feeds).  I dropped her morning feed first (at 14 months) and just tried to get her to drink some milk with breakfast.  I waited until she was 15 1/2 months to drop a second feed (her afternoon nap) and then two weeks later I dropped a third feed (morning nap), so by 16 months old I was only breastfeeding her before bedtime.  I thought I would wait another two weeks and then drop that last feed, but the time arrived and I wasn't quite ready, so I waited another week and a half.  I think that I had to psych myself up for it.  Even though I was ready for the "freedom" that awaited me after I finished breastfeeding, I didn't want to give up that special bond that we shared.  So, I really tried to enjoy and savour the time I spent putting her to bed that last week.  When I finally worked up the courage to say to myself "ok, this is the last time," it was a few days before Alexis turned 17 months.  Alexis didn't complain at all.  The first night without breastfeeding, I just put her to bed like it was one of her naps and she went to sleep without any complaining.  It made me realise that I could have probably stopped breastfeeding her earlier, and that I was the one that wasn't ready.  Luckily for us, Alexis slowly started to drink more cow's milk, but even better, we discovered that she absolutely loves oat milk.  John and I only drink oat milk (well, not really drink, but use in cooking), but we had never given it to Alexis.  After comparing the nutrition panels on both products, we determined that it would be ok to give to her.  With cow's milk, Alexis would only drink maybe one whole cup a day (on a good day), and now she drinks usually two to three cups of oat milk.

So there you have it, how I weaned Alexis.  I truly enjoyed breastfeeding my baby and I'm so grateful that it was such a positive experience for both of us.  I can only hope that things will go so smoothly with our future children.

*Just as a side note, I didn't start breastfeeding Alexis before her naps until after she started standing up in her crib.  Up until that point, I had kept her to an 'eat, play, sleep' routine.  I found that once she could pull herself up in her crib, she would get too riled up, so I started nursing her to calm her down before nap time.  As she got older and was eating more solids, I got to the point (at 14 months), where I was only nursing her before she would go to sleep.

5 Years!

John and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary by spending the weekend (with Alexis) at our favourite holiday destination in North Queensland: Mission Beach. It was a great weekend. We were afraid that we wouldn't be able to go because of the damage caused by Cyclone Yasi (it crossed right at Mission Beach), but the holiday house we wanted to stay in was intact, so we lucked out big time. Even better, the house has new owners and we were the first guests to stay there since they renovated it. I stayed in the same house last year while my mom was visiting, but now it had a brand new indoor and outdoor kitchen and the bedrooms all had new linens. It was fabulous. And on top of that, we had perfect weather! Which is quite amazing because it had been raining so much that leading up to our trip the highway up north was actually closed because of flooding, so we really got lucky.  It was both interesting and sad to travel up north and see the devastation that Cyclone Yasi left behind.  Here is a picture looking at the beach from Sea-s-ta (our holiday house).  The top picture is before the cyclone, the bottom one is after:

The pictures don't really do it justice.  There was almost no beach left compared to what there was.  Just to get to the beach, you had to slide down about a four foot drop off of where the beach had been blown/washed away.

This is a picture of what used to be the lush rainforest:

The rainforest used to be so thick that most of the roads around Mission Beach were completely shaded.  They are all sunny now.

Even with all of the damage to the area, it is still beautiful.  We are so glad that we got to visit one more time before we move.  It was nice to spend some relaxing time as a family.  Alexis absolutely loved that she could pretty much go outside whenever she wanted and that we would let her wander all over the yard (supervised of course).

We had lots of fun playing at the beach:

And even more fun swimming in the pool (we couldn't go swimming in the ocean because it's jellyfish season and there were no stinger nets up because of the cyclone):

Alexis loved to look down the filter and watch the water:

Another memorable moment was Alexis pooping in the bathtub for the first time:

John and I reminisced about anniversaries past where we could celebrate kid-free.  But we really couldn't have asked for a nicer weekend.  It was just what we needed.  Here's to another five years! 

New love?

Ever since deciding to eat vegetarian/vegan, we have been trying a lot of new things at our house.  Let me just say that I hate tofu!  I'm not really a big fan of soy in general,* and tofu has always grossed me out (I think it's the texture, plus the soy taste).  Everything I read about tofu says that is supposedly takes on the flavour of the seasonings you use with it; this has not been my experience.  I have tried quite a few tofu recipes over the last few months and have barely been able to eat any of them.  But, I am ever the optimist.  I was sure that I could at least get used to tofu, if I could find the right recipe.  We had this tonight for dinner (served as manicotti with their recipe for 'red sauce').  It was amazing!!  If someone else had made it for me, I would have never guessed that I was eating tofu.  Next on my list of tofu recipes to try is a tofu scramble (instead of scrambled eggs).  Even after this good experience with tofu, I'm still not looking forward to it.  Wish me luck!

*Except TVP, it's awesome!

Church #60

Alexis is getting very wiggly and this is the best picture that we could get of her this morning. That bracelet must taste good!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Church #59

Fashionista

Alexis is a little fashionista in the making. She already has her own unique sense of fashion. You'll notice from this past post and the picture below that she tends to go for her swimmers and hats (and in this case, swimmers as a hat).  She can even put the purple bathing suit bottoms on her head all by herself.  Alexis has about four different bottoms to choose from, but she always chooses the purple ones to wear as a hat.  She must like purple!  In fact, Alexis likes the purple bottoms so much that she insisted on wearing them when we went to the mall the other day.  How does a 16 month old baby insist on wearing something, you ask?  By screaming every time I try to take them off.  She got quite a few compliments on her fashion choice.  I guess I better enjoy picking out her outfits while I still have the option.

Church #58

Alexis has started to throw little fits and temper tantrums. She's only 16 months old and already the "terrible twos" seem to be making an appearance at our house. Thankfully, the fits are usually short-lived. This is what happened when I took her bathing suit bottoms away from her because she was trying to wear them like a hat and was about to mess up her hair:

John already had the camera out to take her usual Sunday pictures and we couldn't resist.  These next pictures were taken after her little tantrum (when we gave her the bathing suit bottoms back to hold).

Too early?

We don't think so. Alexis is super interested in the toilet right now; she especially loves tearing little pieces of toilet paper and throwing them in. So, we thought that we would give her little potty seat a go.

She sat up there for a few minutes and then when I got her down, she wanted to get back up, so she sat up there for a little bit longer. Nothing happened until I got her down for the last time. We were a little slow in putting her diaper back on and she peed on the carpet. If only she had gone a minute earlier!

We're not really going to start potty training her yet, but we thought we might as well get her used to the idea.  She already loves her special seat, so that's a good start.