A few new developments

Jack has suddenly decided to put himself to sleep. He used to let me nurse him or rock him to bed. If I tried to put him down awake, he wasn't having it. About a week ago, he wouldn't let me nurse or rock him. I put him in his crib to scream while I made him a bottle. As I made my way to the kitchen, I realized he wasn't screaming. He hung out in his crib for a few minutes and fell asleep. I decided to keep on trying this method, and he's fallen asleep on his own every time. I'm not naive enough to think that he this is a done deal, but I sure hope so.

This brings me to another development. One HUGE reason I'm thrilled that Jack is putting himself to sleep is because he has decided not to nurse any more. When he stopped nursing, I wasn't sure how I was going to get him to sleep. Luckily that problem has magically solved itself. I'm not sure exactly why Jack has stopped nursing. I have several guesses but nothing I can definitely pinpoint. The whole situation has been harder for me than Jack. I still feel like he's a bit too young to wean himself at seven months. In my mind, I thought I would be nursing him for the first year. There are all kinds of studies that say breastfeeding through the first year helps with allergies, weight gain, immunity, etc. There's even one study that proposes breastfeeding may be linked to higher IQs in some elementary age kids (I'm not sure about that one). And, of course, breast milk is the best thing for my baby, and I want that for him. I've thought about pumping and just giving it to him in a bottle, but that seems a little impractical. I think I may try to pump enough to do half breast milk/half formula bottles for a couple of months. That's a little more reasonable, and I won't be chained to the machine. This is all probably more information than most of you want to know. Jack's not breastfeeding makes him a little less dependent on me and more of a big boy, and I'm not sure if I'm ready for that yet. I guess I don't have a choice.