Just wanted some input on this, as I feel really conflicted. I'm not talking about nightweaning - Ds (22 mos now) nightweaned very easily and smoothly at about 18 mos without any real trying on my part.
I'm 11 weeks pregnant, and I get terrible nursing aversion. I can and have sucked it up and nursed through it during each of my pregnancies, and am not interested in full weaning. I'd enjoy tandem nursing again.
But this time around, I'm really finding that last nursing session - the go-to-sleep one, to be really hard. I hate it. I want to never do it again. I also know that it is often, if not usually, the LAST nursing session a child is ready to give up. My son has been a bit resistant of attempts on my part to stop doing it - not to the point that it's horrible, but it's clear that he wants it, and that I'm trying not to give it to him.
What makes it so hard for me is knowing that despite changes in my body that have made breastfeeding him now feel so different than it did a couple months ago, there have been no such changes in his body. He still needs and wants it just like he did then; it feels the same to him as it always has. It's my situation that is different now, and it feels unfair to ask him to give up a nursing session that he still enjoys and needs (if only for comfort) because of that.
But unless you've had nursing aversion, I can't begin to explain how horrid it feels. And fatigue makes it worse. So that last nursing session of the day is awful, and there is no way to NOT seethe while doing it. And for any mama committed to lovingly breastfeeding her child as long as they need, the guilt that comes with the aversion can be pretty wretched. Unfortunately, that doesn't fix the aversion.
So... any advice? Stick it out with the bedtime nursing session until he doesn't need it anymore, cycling through the repertoire of "nursing through aversion" tricks as needed? Or gently eliminate it, making sure he is well-fed and cuddled lovingly, and that he has more access to the breast at other times?
I'm 11 weeks pregnant, and I get terrible nursing aversion. I can and have sucked it up and nursed through it during each of my pregnancies, and am not interested in full weaning. I'd enjoy tandem nursing again.
But this time around, I'm really finding that last nursing session - the go-to-sleep one, to be really hard. I hate it. I want to never do it again. I also know that it is often, if not usually, the LAST nursing session a child is ready to give up. My son has been a bit resistant of attempts on my part to stop doing it - not to the point that it's horrible, but it's clear that he wants it, and that I'm trying not to give it to him.
What makes it so hard for me is knowing that despite changes in my body that have made breastfeeding him now feel so different than it did a couple months ago, there have been no such changes in his body. He still needs and wants it just like he did then; it feels the same to him as it always has. It's my situation that is different now, and it feels unfair to ask him to give up a nursing session that he still enjoys and needs (if only for comfort) because of that.
But unless you've had nursing aversion, I can't begin to explain how horrid it feels. And fatigue makes it worse. So that last nursing session of the day is awful, and there is no way to NOT seethe while doing it. And for any mama committed to lovingly breastfeeding her child as long as they need, the guilt that comes with the aversion can be pretty wretched. Unfortunately, that doesn't fix the aversion.
So... any advice? Stick it out with the bedtime nursing session until he doesn't need it anymore, cycling through the repertoire of "nursing through aversion" tricks as needed? Or gently eliminate it, making sure he is well-fed and cuddled lovingly, and that he has more access to the breast at other times?
