Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Going down the road
I think the time is coming soon when my baby -- well, okay, my toddler -- will stop breastfeeding.
I've breastfed all 3 of my babies for as long as it felt possible and right. That's longer than most people but not as long as some, but I don't really care what other people do in this regard; it's a personal thing for me and my family. It's healthy and, beyond the first 8 months or so, it becomes very easy and not very frequent, so I've always felt that it's a free, easy way to protect them against gastro-intestinal upsets etc., and help them to feel loved.
I weaned my first baby when I was trying to get pregnant with the second. In fact I was already pregnant but didn't know it yet. The second one breastfed until he was 2 and a bit, but he only did it for 5-10 minutes before bed, so it was easy and pleasant.
With this one things are a little different: She would -- and did -- nurse 5 or 6 times a day if I agreed to it. She's just much more physical and, well, clingy than the others were. So the time came where she was asking to nurse so often that I thought okay, that's it. So I started telling her no, that we only nurse before bed, and within a week she had virtually stopped asking. Now she nurses once in the morning and once before bed. She's more interested in reading books before bed and sometimes even says no when I ask her if she's ready to nurse because she knows that that's the stage before bed.
So it looks like the end of a good thing is coming. Like every other step in my children's lives it makes me happy for her and frees me up a bit, but also makes me a little bit sad, a little bit nostalgic, a little bit torn. But that's okay. Like most things about being a mother, it's not about me.
I think the time is coming soon when my baby -- well, okay, my toddler -- will stop breastfeeding.
I've breastfed all 3 of my babies for as long as it felt possible and right. That's longer than most people but not as long as some, but I don't really care what other people do in this regard; it's a personal thing for me and my family. It's healthy and, beyond the first 8 months or so, it becomes very easy and not very frequent, so I've always felt that it's a free, easy way to protect them against gastro-intestinal upsets etc., and help them to feel loved.
I weaned my first baby when I was trying to get pregnant with the second. In fact I was already pregnant but didn't know it yet. The second one breastfed until he was 2 and a bit, but he only did it for 5-10 minutes before bed, so it was easy and pleasant.
With this one things are a little different: She would -- and did -- nurse 5 or 6 times a day if I agreed to it. She's just much more physical and, well, clingy than the others were. So the time came where she was asking to nurse so often that I thought okay, that's it. So I started telling her no, that we only nurse before bed, and within a week she had virtually stopped asking. Now she nurses once in the morning and once before bed. She's more interested in reading books before bed and sometimes even says no when I ask her if she's ready to nurse because she knows that that's the stage before bed.
So it looks like the end of a good thing is coming. Like every other step in my children's lives it makes me happy for her and frees me up a bit, but also makes me a little bit sad, a little bit nostalgic, a little bit torn. But that's okay. Like most things about being a mother, it's not about me.
# posted by becca : 7:16 AM
