Splendid Mayhem: Help Me Wean!

Welcome To Holland

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

Friday, January 18, 2008

Help Me Wean!

Ok, I'm having a HARD time weaning Parker from the breast. He will take juice and water from a cup. Sippy, straw, open- all kinds. However, we've tried breastmilk, whole milk, soy milk, rice milk, chocolate milk, strawberry milk, vanilla milk- warm, hot, cold, room temp.... NOTHING IS WORKING. He throws it. Or he will take a sip and spit it out at you. So, how do I wean this child?!?!?!?! It's not that he can't do it. It's that he think milk comes from a boob. And, thats it. All other milk sources aren't good.

I NEED HELP! Despirately need help. I'd like to have him weaned by April b/c I want tto do some volunteer stuff. He needs to be off the breast and used to it long before then so my hubby and mother won't loose sanity while taking care of him. LOL

2 comments:

Andrea "The H family"January 19, 2008 at 7:48 AM
I'm so sorry for laughing girl. I pray he's off by April! I have to say..I'm loving your header, your blog, all of it. You are a master blogger. You do a terrific job.
Love, love it!
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Trish ~CnJ's Mommy~January 19, 2008 at 1:13 PM
You could go cold turkey...maybe if it's all he was offered...no matter the fuild in the cup, he'd take it? {{hugs}}
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