Tufeil's Weaning Complete!

It was on my birthday on 22nd Dec last year when I finally finally decided enough was enough. I am not letting Tufeil any of milk anymore! Don't mention about the pain and discomfort and lack of sleep from his 2 hourly snack through the night, but its more for both our mental well being, I imagine. LOL

Anyway, we just came back from our Turkish/Spanish holiday and were terribly jetlagged. I took one day urgent leave that was followed by the Xmas long weekend to recover from it. And so I thought, let's kill two birds with one day and take this opportunity to wean Tufeil off.

Firstly, was to get a change of scene. Me and Tufeil slept with my mum in her room while my dad had to sleep in mine. For the first 3 nights he didn't sleep till 3am. Dad helped to entertain him and mum helped to shush him when he woke up. He tossed and turned tossed and turned but finally he was too tired and fell asleep. If he woke up and cried for milk i just kept telling him "Mummy's milk is sick" and he would understand.

On the 4th night, we graduated back to our own room. He went to sleep watching videos from the computer. Luckily I have a wireless mouse so i could still lay down with him while at the same time click Replay on whatever is his favourite Youtube video of the moment. Initially I thought that its better to just play a longer video / movie for him so that he can fall asleep easily because there's not much excitement of changing to the next video or whatever. But turned out the opposite is true. A short video of say... 3 min is most ideal because it remains exciting even if you replay 5 times and usually by the 5th time, Tufeil would have fallen asleep.

I was a bit worried that school was about to reopen and his sleeping pattern was still not corrected. But the day before we went out and he got so tired he slept early. and by early i meant 12mn. And then slowly after the first week, his bedtime crept earlier and earlier till now he sleeps at 9.30pm back to usual timing before being weaned off. However, at this point of writing, he's been waking up at around midnight, cried like crazy just as I was about to go to sleep too that I couldn't pacify him. He let himself out, cried at the hallway waiting for my mum to open her room door and slept with her. Although I was relieved to not have to listen to him cry... i found myself not able to sleep without him on the bed with me =( It's been two nights like this. I hope it gets better.

Yes, I totally feel disconnected ever since I stopped breastfeeding him. In good times, i would bear hug him, tickle him senseless and everything but once he started crying, i just switched off. I don't know why he just won't be pacified by me and want his grandparents instead. But then again, kids are clever, they know how to play you. For eg: Tufeil, at bathtime, if it's my mum who brought him to the toilet, who would cry asking for me. And if it was me, he would ask for my mum. Aiyoooo!!

Anyways, immediately following the successful weaning, I had to work late a couple of nights and didn't really get to spend time with him. And our bond, to me, grew distant. When he was having fever, I thought, "Nahh it's ok... my mum can help to take care of him" I did not feel the urgency or need to be with my sick son. Is there something wrong with me? To be clear, i did take childcare leave on the 3rd day and he got well soon after.

So for the record, Tufeil was 2yrs 9 months old when he finally weaned off the Bmilk.