Yep! Once I couldn’t imagine it but now it has come and passed. I am no longer nursing. The “baby” was weaned at 34 months, just after Chinese New Year (January 2012 )
Nursing since 1998
I have been nursing since April 1998. Not long but not short either. I usually get a break from nursing in the second and third trimester of the next pregnancy.
The shortest a child had nursed was 12 months and 2 days. The longest, 34 months. They tend to wean around 14 to 15 months because that would be the around the time I hit the 2nd trimester of the next pregnancy.
No nursing through pregnancy, please
I can’t do the nursing through a pregnancy thing. It drives me nuts to nurse during a pregnancy. The longest I have held on was with child #3 as he was only 6 months when I got pregnant with #4. I made my deal with God that He had to give me enough milk to nurse him till he turned one. He weaned on his own two days after he turned one. Amazing answer of God! 🙂
With the rest, I actively encourage them to wean once I hit the second trimester of the next pregnancy. Usually by then my milk supply dips really low. I can suddenly feel them suckling really hard and it hurts and makes my skin crawls!
The privileged one
So with our youngest, she was blessed to have nursed the longest ever because I did not get pregnant again until she was almost 3. (That pregnancy however ended in a miscarriage). Weaning her however was easy. She had been down to just nursing twice a day – to go to sleep at nap and bedtimes. I do the don’t offer, don’t refuse method once they turn one.
I was willing to keep nursing her until she started taking forever to nurse to sleep! At least 45 min to an hour! I just couldn’t take it anymore. So I started unlatching her after 5 minutes and told her to go to sleep without nursing. And she did! So I figured that since she doesn’t need to nurse to sleep she can wean.
Last call!
I took the plunge and prepped her the night before that “tonight is the last time you get your “merk merk”. The next day when I told her that there wasn’t anymore “merk merk” she just whined a little, turned to her side and went to sleep! No fuss at all. And she never asked for it again.
Now if only getting her to sleep on her own without me needing to be in the room with her would be that easy!
Update (22 July 2017)
She is now 8 and has gone to bed on her own since she was 3. She also does not remember nursing at all! So sad, huh? But I am glad in a way because it meant that she was not traumatised at all.
So you young mothers out there, there IS a light at the end of the tunnel indeed!
Related Posts:
Breastfeeding Requires Sacrifices
5 Comments on Weaned!
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
I tried the unlatching-after-5min-and-tell-her-to-go-to-sleep bit recently and ended with a furious, tearful little girl 😛 LOL! guess mine is not ready yet..
If there isn’t any real need then don’t push it. In my case, it was really ridiculous to be stuck in bed for 1 hour! Besides she was waaay past 2 yrs old 🙂
She’s not taking an hour but close! It used to be like 15min. But she’s been sick on off since december and then she hit a few development milestones. I guess I should be a bit more sympathetic but 45 min nursing is, like, hallo??!! that’s why I tried it. 😛
Yeah. Well at least Anna would let me read a book while she nursed so it was just uncomfortable.
Thanks for sharing about your weaning experience.
There are too few Singaporean stories about nursing and weaning toddlers/preschoolers; nursing through pregnancy and nursing older babies are such different experiences for every mother-baby pair! Good on you, Serene, for keeping with breastfeeding through the challenges and the lllooooonnng nursing sessions!