The Chair

When I was pregnant with M I found a rocker/glider chair off of craigslist. It was of course one of the "good" brands, because as you know, a new mommy want the best. The previous owners had reupholstered it themselves. Well it may have been reupholstered but the cushioning on the inside was the old stuff. So my mom had it redone. The only thing was I labeled the seat and the back wrong and so the back ended up becoming the seat and not fitting correctly. Well it’s been that way since and it hasn’t really bothered me. It’s been the chair that I’ve nursed M in since the beginning. It first sat downstairs in the basement so I could get up for middle of the night feedings. Then it was put in her room when she moved up to her crib. We would sometimes hide out in her room to nurse if company was at the house and I loved when she got older and started being silly with mama when she nursed. She would lay there in my arms after nursing and gurgle words and then as she got older she would say “all done” when she was done nursing. It was also where she would look at mommy’s parts with curiosity and poke at them and giggle.

It has now been two months since I last nursed M. It was almost an abrupt stop. I had just weaned her from nursing in the morning the week before and was planning maybe another month of slowly weaning from before bedtime nursing. Well that weekend I decided to finally convert her crib into the day bed so she could learn how to sleep in a regular bed. On Sunday afternoon I got the front crib panel off and I fixed her bed all cozy for her and told her it was now her “big girl bed” she was so excited and wanted to jump in it and lay down right away. She was so excited that she didn’t even remember to ask for milk before bed. She went to sleep without fuss and woke up the next morning ready to go to Nama’s house. So off to Nama’s house for the day. I was still surprised she hadn’t mentioned “milk”, even in the morning. The week before she would ask for it in the morning and I would say “Remember, we’re not having mama’s milk in the morning, we’re having breakfast”. It wasn’t even until that evening and she kind of remembered but forgot again right before bed. When she finally realized what had happened I told her “You’re a big girl now! Mama’s milk made you strong and healthy and now you don’t need it anymore” She was kind of okay with that explanation but we had to change up our bedtime routine a little so she wouldn’t feel like she needed mama’s milk. We started reading more books before bed and even a little TV some nights after dinner to watch “Harry Potta” with daddy. We also kind of stayed away from the nursing chair and it became more of a place to pile things some days but we’ve been reading her bedtime stories sitting on the floor by her bed. So now, here we are, two months later. Yesterday morning when she woke up I was cuddling her in the dark and had sat down in the chair… she kind of mumbled something and I said “what did you say love?” and she said “I want milk” really shy and quietly. We hadn’t snuggled in that chair really in the last two month. I smiled, hugged her tight and I told her “you’re a big girl love and you don’t need mama’s milk anymore. But we can cuddle anytime you want!” She hugged me and said “I want eggy’s”. So off to the kitchen for scrambled eggs.

She had a good transition I think. She didn’t have any tantrums or withdraw into baby type behavior like some toddlers I’d read do. She’s grown SO much in the last two months too! Or maybe I just notice it more because we’re not nursing now. Her potty training is going great! She wears a pull up at night but it’s been dry every time I take it off. At school she usually might just have one or two accidents a week, if that. None at home to speak of barring an incident in daddy’s car J. Her vocabulary and her memory are just amazing, I’m thinking she got her daddy’s memory (Thank Goodness!). The other night I sat down to finally start her 2^nd year photo album and just looking at the pictures from this time last year it’s incredible how much she’s changed and grown! It made me a little sad but also incredibly happy how we have this beautiful, happy healthy little girl that we’re so blessed to see grow and change each day. 

Now I just have to convince her to let me take the chair out of her room to use for baby sister :)