I'm ready to wean 2 & 3 year olds

[see mama run]

I'm ready to wean. My dd is 3.5 and My ds is 26 mo. I had thought I would nurse until they weaned on their own but I really feel done. I'm looking at nursing as more of a chore and I'm getting resentful and I know that they must feel it. My children came to us via adoption and have nursed on demand since each child's first day in our family (dd 12 days, ds 3.5 mo). They are both nursing to sleep, upon waking and one or two other daytime nursings. They've both slowed way down on their own and do accept limits pretty well. Does anyone have any advice on how to make the transition easier emotionally on all of us? I am sad and a little scared to end our nursing relationship. We are so close and I believe it has aided so much in their secure attachment. I want to pursue yoga teacher training this summer.That will mean that I'll be away for at least a weekend here and there. I feel like after 3.5 years of nursing and 9 years of homeschooling it's time for me to pursue something just for me and I resent the demands of nursing sometimes. My dh is willing to help in anyway and is way supportive of weaning now and he is a huge supporter of breastfeeding.

[D_McG]

What a amazing gift! I would just cut one 'session' per week ad replace it with a snack or activity (whichever feels appropriate). That's how I weaned my son and how I'm weaning my little girl. I will say that it was not/is not tear free. But the other ways don't work for my kids (distraction, etc). We cuddle and work through it.

I remind myself that weaning is an evolution of our relationship. On to bigger and better things! Of course nursing is wonderful but at some point it stops feeling 'right' to me. I'm getting there with my little girl now. Sad but inevitable!

[pbjmama]

I agree with pp. Another method I've found useful if it is difficult to actually cut out a whole nursing is to make it super short, like to the count of 10.

[PGTlatte]

Wow, what am amazing gift you've given them !!

I'm no weaning expert....but I can share what was helpful for me here. With DS1, restricting nursing to three sessions per day; then later using the counting to restrict the time of those sessions to be shorter and shorter. I also kind of set up those sessions to have a distraction - like getting ready to leave to go somewhere exciting or a toy just out of rotation or something like that, so that got his mind off the nursing being such a big deal to him.

With DS2, he weaned when my milk dried up and I had to limit the time to very short counts due to pain. He switched over to a special blue sippy cup - it is his favorite color and he loves it with a passion - and the soymilk he drinks comes in a blue carton - so it was called "blue milk in a blue cup" and he was happy to have it while he held my breast with his hand. Perhaps strange, but it worked for him.

[see mama run]

Thanks for support and ideas! I am excited about entering a new stage with my kids but sad too because we worked really hard at establishing breastfeeding and it's been an extra special way for us all to bond. I really believe that breastfeeding is every child's birth right. Yesterday I explained to my daughter that my "boobas" were getting tired and that our goat Honey needed to take a break from giving us 'booba milk". We have been using an at breast nursing supplementer w/raw goat milk since dd was born. Our mama goat has been giving us milk for 3.5 years w/o fail!! She understood that and I cut the amount of milk down by an ounce. I'm going to keep cutting it down and replacing nursing with other loving. The first day went well, I think it's going to be harder on me!!!!!!