As of May 1, my son was nursing twice a day - first thing in the morning, and before bed at night. We decided it was a good time to start the weaning process. He was 19 months old, flu season was over, and frankly, that morning nursing session seemed to be mostly fooling around.
It was a horror to drop it though. Even though he was hit or miss on whether he wanted it, as soon as it became off limits he was hysterical. It took about 3 weeks for him to be completely over it. Which coincided with DH leaving to go help with FIL who had a stroke. I thought that wouldn't be the best time to drop another session - with his schedule/routine/life off the normal.
DH is back and last week we talked about revisiting dropping that last feed, when my son hit a 104.4 fever on Friday night necessitating a trip to urgent care. He's fine, but I thought that as long as I was still nursing, maybe I should add in whatever sessions he needed to help get over it more quickly, especially since he's not eating much. Saturday morning I nursed him, and he awoke a couple times Saturday night and I nursed him then too (he hasn't woken at night in ages!). Sunday night was back to normal. Last night/this morning at 3:30 he was up and inconsolable, so I added in a nursing session then.
On the one hand, I'm thankful I'm still able to help him through illness and provide comfort when he's not feeling well. On the other hand, I feel like I'm right back where we started!
Re: I am a weaning failure!
You're a weaning failure but a breastfeeding success.
Giving up nursing when he's sick will definitely be the hardest part. There are just holes in my parenting that have always been filled by nursing, and finding other ways to do things is hard.
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This made me laugh! I'll have to remember the success part when DS is three and I'm still trying to figure out how to wean him! I'm hoping DS will self wean but time will tell. GL!