My family moved back to the midwest after 6 years in Washington state. We now have an almost-5 year old and an 18 month old. Our older son has really never spent time away from us. He did daycare and has had very occasional baby-sitters, but the farthest we’ve been from him for an extended time is overnight when we stayed in a hotel 10 miles away, just to see how/if it would work. Now he’s finally willing to stay with grandma and grandpa (6-7 hours away) for a short week. I want to send the 18 month along, since I don’t want to wait until he’s 5 for a couple days’ break with my husband, but he’s still nursing. We’re regularly down to about 4x a day (wake up, am nap, pm nap, bedtime) but yesterday we were traveling and out of our schedule, and he didn’t nurse for 24 hours. I don’t have a problem not nursing (I can pump if I get engorged, which I rarely do) but I’m wondering if HE will. My thought is that he does it for reassurance and closeness, and that it will be good for him to learn he can get those things in other ways, from other people. He is no longer dealing with stranger/separation anxiety and I’d like to get him down to 2 nursings a day before they go. Should I plan on completely weaning him before he goes? Can I plan to not nurse for 4-5 days and then resume when he comes home? Has anyone done this?