Stealing second base

We had a little bit of a relapse in the weaning. I should have known it was too good to be true that Jack basically weaned himself so quickly. This morning, I was typing on the computer and Jack was wanting me to hold him. So, like I've done so many times in the past, I sat Jack on my lap as I typed. It only occurred to me afterward that this was a regular nursing position for him.

Over the past week, he has asked for "booby" a number of times. Usually, I will ask him, "Do you really want booby?" and he'll say, "No!" This time, I asked him, and he said, "Yeah."

Uh-oh.

The La Leche League encourages a "Don't offer, don't refuse" policy of weaning. It's basically what it sounds like: Don't offer to nurse if a child doesn't ask for it, but don't refuse if he does. I was so surprised by Jack's answer of "Yeah," when he had been saying "No" this entire week, that I hadn't formulated a response ahead of time. All I could think was, "Don't offer, don't refuse."

So I said to him, "Do you just want to say 'hi' to booby?" He - of course - said, "Yeah!" I - stupidly - lifted up my shirt. Instead of just saying "hi" like I was expecting (hoping), he just latched right on.

Jack ended up asking to nurse a couple more times the rest of the day, but I just told him that Mommy's boobies had band-aids on them because he had bitten them last week. I was hoping to be more natural, gradual, and truthful in my approach to weaning, but Jack has a personality that seems prone to recidivism. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.

So... lessons learned:

1) Don't let Jack sit on my lap while I'm typing on the computer. I think it's too much of a memory trigger for him.

2) Bring back the band-aids. The band-aids, signifying "owie bite booby," were really effective.