Kylie's 4th Birthday and Weaning Party

It happened...Kylie turned 14, I mean 4, and we are officially done nursing. Neither of which I am super excited about, but I realize that I can not make time stand still no matter how hard I try.

Many, many things have happened in the past few months, I have obviously slacked big time. There is a chance I will try to catch up, but today was too important to skip.

Kylie's birthday fell on a wednesday. Uncle Tim, Auntie Melissa and Andie surprised Kylie by arriving to Redlands on Tuesday. Wednesday was a full day, gifts in the morning, new birthday outfit to wear on her daddy-daughter breakfast date, story time with Papa, lunch date with Tim and Melissa, play time with Ama, home for a little more playtime and back to Ama and Papas house for a birthday dinner with the whole family, even Oma and Bubba!

Thursday she woke up and asked if she could chew gum, now that she was 4 years and we were going to have her weaning party soon (we have been holding gum as the "fun" "big girl" thing she would get to have once she stopped nursing). I told her she could have gum, but that meant she could not nurse all day (she is only nursing about 1-3 times a day now, not nursing to sleep anymore, but often in the morning). She went the whole day without nursing, she also chewed about half a pack of gum. Friday she nursed in the morning, fell back to sleep and when she woke she forgot that she had already nursed and asked if she could chew gum again for the day. So she did. Saturday she said she wanted to nurse, so she nursed and gave the gum a break. This morning she woke up very excited about her weaning party and birthday party. We went to church, and once we got home we started getting ready for the party.

We rented a bounce house, which arrived around 11:30 and we set up the rest of the backyard for the party at 1. Around 1:30 some of the girls and women at the party headed inside for the weaning party.  We have been talking about weaning for some time now and we decided that having a weaning party would be a good idea. It was sweet and exactly what we needed to help feel like we honored the past 4 years. We wore flower head pieces (Kylie wanted it to be like a Mother's Blessing), we passed around a book I made of all the photos of Kylie and I nursing since she was born, Kylie nursed for the last time, opened her weaning doll and some gum (which she is allowed to have now that she is not nursing) and we blew out some candles on a cake. Simple, sweet and emotional. I will miss nursing her.

The party theme was Unicorns (of course).

Kylie was the oldest one at her party today. We invited some of her big friends but none of them could make it. And it actually turned out great. She was able to jump in the bounce house without getting pushed around or scared of the other big kids. Kylie had a great time at her party, she enjoyed eating the snacks, blowing out candles (on the cake that she made, she also helped to make the cupcakes too), opening gifts and of course jumping in the bounce house. It was a beautiful sunny day with moments of cloud cover it could not have been more perfect. I still can't believe Kylie is 4! Any I can't believe she is really done nursing! I was having a lot of aversion when I nursed her, so I was slightly more pro-active about us weaning. I had never really thought of a nursing goal, just figured we would go until we were done. I have some feelings of guilt about encouraging her to wean since I know she may not have been completely ready. I also try to give myself a break, nursing Kylie for 4 years was amazing. She is strong, healthy and very intelligent, she is an amazing little girl and I like to think some of it is because I nursed her on average about 10 times a day (24 hour period) for about 1,466 days. That is a lot of nursing. I will miss nursing her, but I feel like it is time for the transition. I don't know anyone that weaned a 4 year old while still nursing another baby so I am hoping it goes well. Only time will tell...

Tomorrow morning Kylie will get on an airplane and go on a 2 night trip with her grandma to visit her auntie in Sacramento. It will be the longest we have ever been away from each other. We packed her bags tonight, she has her weaning doll, our breastfeeding book and an entire purse full of gum. She is so excited. We will miss her, but I think she will have a great time.

I will try to get back to this...I think about it EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. I know I will love having this to look back on, so I just need to make it happen! 

Happy Happy Birthday to my Amazing Daughter Kylie May, we LOVE you so much!!!
-Mommy, daddy and Coop