Boundaries

I guess Reid is getting to be that age where we have to decide what is overindulging him and what is not.

I've been struggling with night weaning in the past few days. You see, "they" tell me that Reid should be sleeping through the night right now and should not need to nurse. So I have tried to rock him to sleep instead of nursing. The result: I'm tired. Really, really tired. Today I came across this and it made me feel much better. Basically it says that if the baby is not responding to weaning, back off and try again later. Something that also made my shoulders unclench a little was the idea that sleeping through the night is a milestone like crawling or walking, and every child will reach it eventually in his or her own time. So "they" can suck it. I'm going to nurse my baby in the middle of the night and we're all going to be fine.

Still, though, I am surprised at how many times a day Reid cries and I have to decide whether I need to immediately relieve him of whatever it is that's causing his displeasure or not. I also have to figure out how to handle his outbursts. For example, if I lie him down on his back and he immediately cries, my general reaction is to sing and dance and wave toys around in his face until he forgets how much he does not want to be on his back. Same with his tummy. Actually, unless I'm sure it is a pretty serious "I am hungry/I need Mama/I'm in danger" cry, I try to talk him out of it before I go and pick him up. I do not want to have a whiny child who is constantly attached to me because he never got a chance to figure things out on his own. OK, I don't want to have a whiny child who never got a chance to figure things out on his own.

But then there are the times when we are having so much fun, and there is a little voice in the back of my head that says "one day this is going to backfire on you so bad. And you are going to wish you had put a stop to it." Like when my sweet, sweet boy grins, takes my face in his hands, and starts sucking on my chin and giggling. I end up covered in drool, but he is grinning at me and I am grinning at him, and my face is clean, and I make sure that I use facial products that are not going to cause him harm. So what's the problem?

I could go to the church Christmas cookie exchange without realizing that I have a giant hickey on my jaw.

That's the problem.