Sunday, February 28, 2010
End of Nursing
When I first became pregnant, I decided that I would breastfeed and I also knew that I would follow the child lead weaning theory. With Eli, he stopped nursing one week before he turned one. I think that if *I* had allowed it, he would have stopped much sooner. Scott had to bring it to my attention that every night I was basically wrestling Eli to get him to nurse and the nursing session ended very quickly. At one year of age, Ian was still nursing three times a day and I was very happy with that. Slowly that changed, first dropping his afternoon session. About two months ago, he was ready to go to bed without nursing. The morning session had been his longest nursing session for a while, he did very well nursing while the house was still quiet and there were no distractions. Until the other morning. He woke up, I grabbed him and his blankey out of the crib and headed to the rocking chair to nurse. He quickly latched on, suckled a few times, pulled himself off of the breast and sat straight up, looked at me and said "NO!" and started to wiggle down from my lap. I was heart broken....my baby has weaned himself. I have mixed emotions really, I am ready to be done with nursing, but I want Ian to stay little as long as possible! His weaning is just one more step towards him growing up. I am proud to say that I nursed my baby until he was sixteen months old. I have nourished his body and provided extra antibodies to keep him healthy. Our nursing session in the morning has been replaced by rocking with a sippy cup, but we still have that quiet time that it is just the two of us and I will treasure that time while I can.
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Great job for making it so long!
ReplyDeleteI think my nursing days are limited with Autumn as well. Nathan was just so much more eager about it but now I only nurse her before work and before bed and she doesn't even stay latched all that long. I know, they are growing up soooo fast! Too fast!
ReplyDeleteCONGRATS on making it to 16 months. That is wonderful! I know it is kind of sad to stop. I weaned Analese at 22 months and it was mutual. Mariele is not quite ready to wean yet, although she has decreased her daytime feedings some. We are having some ouchie issues with her teeth (not necessarily biting, but friction). I hope that Mariele weans easily like Ian did. Although I do feel sad about weaning. There is something just so special about that nursing relationship...
ReplyDeleteYay for making it to 16 months! I had to make Aiden continue nursing as well. He was ready to stop at 11 months. And I know how you feel. It will be nice to be finished in one way, but I love that special one on one time with my baby. So sweet that you still have the sippy cup time!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on making it as long as you have. It is very rare in the U.S. for women to get past 12 months.
ReplyDeleteIn a way, I am a little jealous. My boy is sixteen months too, but not showing any signs of weaning completely. I enjoy it, but at the same time...I want my boobs back as my own property.