on weaning, and substitutions

Shortly after discovering we were pregnant, we decided to wean Abigail.  I was planning to continue to nurse her at least up to 15 months, and past that, until she wanted to still and we found out we were pregnant.  We discovered that when she was 15 1/2 months.  She was completely weaned at 16 1/2 months, and it was a whole lot easier than I’d expected.  The process was getting kind of tiresome for me, as she would ONLY nurse in her room for at most 5 minutes on only one side, and she seemed more and more frustrated with it too, maybe because my supply had gotten so low.

We substituted a pacifier, which she’d never used before, and that seemed to satisfy her.  All on her own, she picked out one of the blankets in her crib and made it a favorite, affectionally calling it,  “Mimeh.”  I need to get a video of her self-soothing process– it is so sweet.  She pops her pacifier in and finds Mimeh.  Then she finds an edge of the blanket, carefully wraps it around one finger to make a nice, little point and sticks it practically up her nose or in one of her ears and rubs it all around in circles- in her ears and back to her nose, etc..  If we’re holding her, she sometimes tries to stick it in our ears.  Her breathing gets heavy, and her body gets completely relaxed.  She does that every time I pick her up and cuddle with her and her blanket or put her in her crib for bed or nap times.  Whenever she’s even upset or hurt, she cries out “Mimeh!”  I mangaged to steal the filthy thing away for two hours today in order to wash it.  She kept asking for it, and I tried to give her other ones, but she’d just cry and throw them on the floor.  As soon as it was finished drying, I handled it to her, and she spent a few minutes just lying on the floor with her face barried in it, making small sounds of relief.  We need to get a back-up, but I haven’t seen any like it.  It was one of my siblings’ or mine when we were little.