A wean-a-way, version 2.0
I nursed Isaac for 13 months and expected, with his brother, to do the same. With Isaac, I was interested in seriously putting my foot down and not being one of those La Leche League poster children with a 5-year-old baby dangling from my boobs. Not that there's anything wrong with that...it's just not for me. And Dada and I in our goo-goo-baby-blind insanity had decided we needed another kid. I didn't get my period back until I started cutting back on the boob juice, when Isaac was 11 months old, so apparently nursing gets in the way of me ovulating. I found out I was pregnant with Jacob almost immediately after Isaac was completely weaned.
Isaac's transition from mommy milk to moo-cow milk went very smoothly, something I blame entirely on his day care. He was used to taking his breastmilk, at least a few hours a day, from a bottle or cup. Substituting one flavor for another didn't seem to faze him at all; as long as it was in his bottle, he was sucking it down like nothin' doing. He still drinks a gawd-awful amount of milk every day. Our pediatrician says to cut back, but she doesn't know, does she, how very little the child will actually eat. But that is another whiny yarn for another day.
Jacob has drunk from a bottle a grand total of two times in his entire life. I have tried recently giving him cow's milk in a bottle. He'll take a few noncomittal sips and then toss it off his high chair or, if he's on the move, ditch it, dripping, on the living room rug. He won't let me cuddle him while he drinks. He will, though, come up to me when fussing and try to lift up my shirt to get at the boob. While I have been totally cool with the few instances of flashing people that nursing has afforded me, I do feel uncomfortable with nursing when my baby is old enough to ask for it. Again, that's just me.
The main obstacle to going off the boob is his poor sleep, which I realize is probably a bit of a vicious cycle. Right now, we nurse usually twice a day during the day, both times to put him to sleep. I'm quite sure he needs milk for calories right now because, while he is fat, he is still a growing boy. So I oblige with the boobie milk, because it usually, conveniently, and silently knocks him out. The problems then become 1) that he is filled up enough with boobie juice to not require filling up with cow's milk, and 2) milk becomes less a source of nutritious calories and more an emotional beverage connected with a particular time and state of mind. If he has not been nursed and I try to put him to sleep -- via another method that works when he is awake but pumped full of boob, such as rocking him or watching TV with him -- he screams bloody murder and thrashes about until I give in and nurse him. If Isaac pulled this crap back in the day, it wasn't too much to deal with because it was just him. But if Jacob doesn't shut up and go to sleep when he ought, it is not only he and I that suffer, but also his big brother. So we continue to use our stupid little nursing-sleep crutch, and he continues to refuse all but a few sips of cow's milk.
Truthfully, I really don't care all that much that Jacob is nursing longer than Isaac did. I never have to nurse him in public anymore, and this time around, I am not interesting in conceiving another baby. With Jacob nursing twice a day (and twice through a typical night), I have still not had a period, which is awesome for so many reasons. What makes me uncomfortable, though, is that both he and I know that he's using the boob for a crutch when he could be learning to comfort himself. Right now he is going through a pretty tough time, getting over a bad cold and cutting four molars at once, so I am not making a move to remove his precious boobie from the table anytime real soon. But it is on my mind, and I'm not really sure how to convince him that cow's milk is really not so bad.
Isaac's transition from mommy milk to moo-cow milk went very smoothly, something I blame entirely on his day care. He was used to taking his breastmilk, at least a few hours a day, from a bottle or cup. Substituting one flavor for another didn't seem to faze him at all; as long as it was in his bottle, he was sucking it down like nothin' doing. He still drinks a gawd-awful amount of milk every day. Our pediatrician says to cut back, but she doesn't know, does she, how very little the child will actually eat. But that is another whiny yarn for another day.
Jacob has drunk from a bottle a grand total of two times in his entire life. I have tried recently giving him cow's milk in a bottle. He'll take a few noncomittal sips and then toss it off his high chair or, if he's on the move, ditch it, dripping, on the living room rug. He won't let me cuddle him while he drinks. He will, though, come up to me when fussing and try to lift up my shirt to get at the boob. While I have been totally cool with the few instances of flashing people that nursing has afforded me, I do feel uncomfortable with nursing when my baby is old enough to ask for it. Again, that's just me.
The main obstacle to going off the boob is his poor sleep, which I realize is probably a bit of a vicious cycle. Right now, we nurse usually twice a day during the day, both times to put him to sleep. I'm quite sure he needs milk for calories right now because, while he is fat, he is still a growing boy. So I oblige with the boobie milk, because it usually, conveniently, and silently knocks him out. The problems then become 1) that he is filled up enough with boobie juice to not require filling up with cow's milk, and 2) milk becomes less a source of nutritious calories and more an emotional beverage connected with a particular time and state of mind. If he has not been nursed and I try to put him to sleep -- via another method that works when he is awake but pumped full of boob, such as rocking him or watching TV with him -- he screams bloody murder and thrashes about until I give in and nurse him. If Isaac pulled this crap back in the day, it wasn't too much to deal with because it was just him. But if Jacob doesn't shut up and go to sleep when he ought, it is not only he and I that suffer, but also his big brother. So we continue to use our stupid little nursing-sleep crutch, and he continues to refuse all but a few sips of cow's milk.
Truthfully, I really don't care all that much that Jacob is nursing longer than Isaac did. I never have to nurse him in public anymore, and this time around, I am not interesting in conceiving another baby. With Jacob nursing twice a day (and twice through a typical night), I have still not had a period, which is awesome for so many reasons. What makes me uncomfortable, though, is that both he and I know that he's using the boob for a crutch when he could be learning to comfort himself. Right now he is going through a pretty tough time, getting over a bad cold and cutting four molars at once, so I am not making a move to remove his precious boobie from the table anytime real soon. But it is on my mind, and I'm not really sure how to convince him that cow's milk is really not so bad.
posted by Claire at 11:03 PM
4 Comments:
We are having similar issues over here. Though we have moved Ryan into the other room and removed the middle of the night feedings in favor of singing and tummy rubbing. Lily is very reluctant to give up nursing. Ryan was easy, around about 11 months he just decided he'd rather be doing other things. He carried his cup around and was very happy to get his nutrition from other sources. I expected Lily to do the same thing, but so far she is not letting go.
I feel the exact same way about nursing. I cut Liam off from the boob first in the morning then at night (had daddy put him to bed) about a week after his 1st birthday. I'll have to remember to give #2 the bottle more often. I have no advice but perhaps put some chocolate syrup in the whole milk? A wee bit?
Is that evil? Probably. But if it works, maybe he'll eventually realize regularly milk is good too.
Here's wishing your boobs to be your own again sometime soonish.
We have tried the chocolate syrup. It only tastes good, apparently, if it's in Big Brother's milk and not his own.
Lily always wants Ryan's drinks too! I can put the same drink in the same cup Ryan had the day before (the one Lily couldn't get enough of that day!) and Lily wants nothing to do with it. Maybe I should get Ryan in on tricking Lily into drinking her milk if I give it to him and he knows it's really for her;-)
Post a Comment
<< Home