BFing the high needs baby

[luna-belle]

Is anyone else out there clw more by circumstance than by choice?

My ds has always been a major boob boy. He nursed constantly for the first 8 weeks of life, rarely sleeping or being held by anyone else. He has continued to NEED nursing a lot throughout his two years. I can't imagine how I could have weaned him had I wanted to before now. I'm still going strong and hanging in there but I'm wondering what other mamas experience has been with the high needs baby and clw. Am I in for the long haul (5 + years)

[NoraB]

My DD was high needs, especially wrt bf'ing. She self-weaned at 5. It was hard for me b/c I was ready for her to wean long before, but I knew she was far from ready herself. My DS, OTH, recently weaned at 3.75 yrs. Each kiddo has a unique timetable. I did set some limits w/ DD though for my own sanity. Always remember that nursing is a 2 way relationship. Aknowledging that doesn't mean going against CLW. Sometimes, just giving yourself permission to meet your own needs can ease stress in CLW.

[TiredX2]

I considered DD to be more high needs than DS (most outsiders consider them both very high needs, I think sometimes I underestimate DS' high needs status because DD had normalized so many of the behaviors). Anyway... with DD we partially night weaned (so, one 4 hour segment once a night) when she was 25 months old and I was pg with DS. I definately pushed her to cut back on nursing more than she would have had I not been pg. At 4 years, 2 months she "forgot" how to nurse and mourned for the next 15 months (she would try to nurse and get very upset that it didn't work, I know I had ample milk because DS was a toddler and there was *tons*). She stopped trying when she was about 5 years, 4 months. I think that is much closer to when she would have naturally weaned, maybe even later. DS happily weaned at 5 years, 8 months. He was allowed to night wean and his full weaning was very satisfying for him. He was very proud of being weaned and never really looked back.

I don't know if I would have been able to wean either of them earlier. I planned on CLW from pregnancy, but it was very different than I thought it would be. I had expected to still be nursing at 2 years, but I thought it would be just to sleep type thing, not the 24 hour buffet it still was with both kids And when I went to my first LLL meeting I knew I would never nurse a preschool aged child. Meanwhile, both of my children not only walked & talked before weaning, but could ride bikes & read books before weaning. I guess they were both weaned before 1st grade though. Oh, and they were late teethers, so they both had 20 teeth when they weaned (didn't loose teeth until later--- DS is 7.75 and has still only lost two teeth, DD is 10 and has lost 8).