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I could very well try it during the day when she will take a sippy cup instead and maybe by bedtime she'll realize it's yucky and would rather have the sippy cup. :D Dude, I love you! Now of course I'm going to tell me mom the idea and she's going to tell me how cruel I am. I'll just blame it on you though.

Well, good luck! (and yes, I'll be happy to take the blame!)

Dear lady, the best service you can do for a child is to deny her what she wants but does not need. You could continue nursing, but you do not wish to--and that's valid. Nobody, not even your daughter, has the right to put your comfort on the back burner to hers. Back yourself up! The earlier she has to learn to accept what she cannot change, the happier she'll be when adversity strikes--as it will do. Whenever you are tempted to open your blouse for her remember that when she's a teenager, the issue may be life-and-death, and what you do now informs how much authority you'll have then.

If she screams for three hours on night one, and even six hours on night two, by night three she'll try only twenty minutes or so, and then you will have won. After that there will be brief spates of token rebellion, easily squashed. Think of it as being like the battle for Baghdad. The outcome is not in question, and the resistance will bluster but collapse quickly.

It's really a battle you cannot afford to lose--she will be a teenager one day, and she'd better understand long before then that when Mama draws a line, it stays drawn. A child this stubborn needs to know that when the question is weaning, not when the question is sex-with-the-persistant-boyfriend.

The difficult child must be taught the hard way. You see all around us what happens when they do not learn young that one does not always get one's way.

I prescribe earplugs or, if you can find one, a most-deaf grandma type to babysit for you while you and your husband get unbroken sleep in a hotel.

Also, if you end up uncomfortable during the weaning process, cabbage leaves inside the bra are a miracle cure. It sounds weird and smells worse, so don't plan to go to a party that way. A nurse prescribed this for me, and I was just desperate enough to try it. It worked very well! I do not know why.