15 months and thinking about weaning

mommatotwo2 · August 2014

Hello. It feels weird to write this post.

LO and I have had a wonderful nursing relationship for fifteen months. I stopped pumping at a year and have been nursing morning, evening and before bed and in demand on weekends (I work fulltime) since.

LO has a sensitivity to straight cows milk, but does fine on all other dairy. Our pediatrician is encouraging us to continue with the cows milk and feels she will outgrow the sensitivity. She's been on soy at meals at daycare and dinner at home.

I have a six year old as well and in the mornings, I have both kids and myself to get ready and out the door for daycare and school, as my DH leaves before the kids are up.

Four mornings ago, we were running really late and LO was really tired so I let her sleep in while I got myself and older daughter ready and just got the baby up and dressed without nursing and asked daycare to just give her a bigger breakfast portion. It worked out great. The next day I had to take the kids to their well child exams and so they were having breakfast at home instead of daycare and I didn't nurse LO again, no issues. Yesterday we had to be out the door 30 min early and the last two mornings had gone so well, so I just didn't nurse again and then today just figured we'd continue the pattern since she doesn't seem to miss it.

She has also been cutting our evening nursing short because she'd rather chase her sister around. Bedtime nursing she still seems to enjoy still, but it means I can not put my oldest daughter to bed, or she has to wait up an extra half hour for me. DH happily does the bedtime routine with her, but she was my only baby for five years and she deserves time with her momma too.

So, if you made it this far, thanks so much for reading all of that background....here are my final thoughts....

I'm strongly considering trying to wean from that last nursing session, but it feels so selfish. I really just want to move on from this stage, completely have my body back, etc. I want to have more time to split between both daughters. But there is an equally huge part of me that just can't wrap my head around this ending. Its been such a huge part of our lives for fifteen months and I know it continues to be really good for her and we are headed into flu season soon and I really wanted to make two years but I never thought I'd make it past my 12 week maternity leave let alone 15 months... I AM SO CONFLICTED.

Any insight/advice/thoughts for this momma? TIA.

RDK24 · August 2014

First of all, creepy internet hugs and I totally feel ya. I'm in a similar situation: I want my body back for a while before we start TTGP again, but my 13-month-old still seems quite happy to nurse twice a day, though she certainly wouldn't lose her mind if we skipped it and she still got fed, I'm pretty sure.

FWIW, I don't think it's selfish to want your body back. You've BF for 15 months -- that's more than a lot of moms can say and it's awesome, plain and simple.

I guess I'm rambling and don't have advice, really,

except to say that you should probably figure out which way the scale is tipping -- toward weaning or toward continuing at least a little nursing. At the moment, the sadness I feel at ending BF-ing outweighs my desire to be done. When the scale tips the other way, I will seriously consider it again.

GL in whatever you decide and try not to feel like it's a selfish/negative decision if you want to stop. Hard as that may be!

mommatotwo2 · August 2014

Thank you so much @RDK24‌, you've done an amazing job too!

surpriseaddition · August 2014

I'm right there with you @mommatotwo2. My LO is 16 months today, and I keep going back and forth about when to wean her. It really is such a hard decision. I love our special time together, but I would like my body back too and am ready to leave the whole pregnancy/nursing thing behind. I also have 3 kids that I'm trying to balance, and I know the nursing takes away from time with the other two who are teenagers and need me is such a different way. Every time I think about weaning, I then feel guilty because she loves to nurse so much and I know this is my last one. I have no advice, but wanted to let you know I feel just as conflicted as you. Every time I've weaned my babies I've always been sad about it. I think it's just another step in them growing up which is always hard to handle! GL!

Beth.1212 · September 2014

My advice (which may be worth about as much as you're paying for it

) is to not make any hasty decisions. You can always decide to try to wean. Once you've weaned, it's probably much harder to go back. Keep thinking about it and try to get a feel for what you really want.

I was struggling with a somewhat similar decision - whether to wean DS before my second baby is born. I was very conflicted and very seriously considering tandem nursing. Nursing has gotten so painful during pregnancy that I am looking forward to stopping at this point, and will definitely do so well before my new LO is born. I am really confident about my decision at this point and can very comfortably stop when the time comes.

I hope that you have a similar moment of clarity in the near future!

mommatotwo2 · September 2014

Thanks so much to everyone for their thoughtful responses. We are still nursing a few times a day. Right now, we are not nursing in the morning primarily because she has been sleeping all the way until its time to leave for daycare and I decided the sleep is important too....so far my supply still seems to be hanging on for the times she does want to nurse. At this point, I am not emotionally ready to give this up, baby is showing no signs of being done and I would like to give her the immune boost over these cold and flu months. Thanks everyone again!

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