Dh and have been thinking and talking a LOT lately about possibly night weaning our ds who is 22 months in hopes of getting a little more sleep. After a lot of talking, I realized I was really starting to resent nursing lately and am starting to lose all enjoyment. I really want to let him wean on his own timing, but I'm starting to feel like I need some boundaries in place. Something's just not feeling "right" to me about our current relationship...it just feels really out of control to me, and while I was fine nursing on demand the first 18 months or so, lately it is DRIVING ME NUTS. Ds would nurse all day long if he could...he prefers it over playing, eating, socializing, etc. He's very, very, very attached to the boob, which is sweet, but starting to exhaust me since I am his only comfort.
All that to say, that before we can even consider night weaning, I think I need to start setting some boundaries for our daytime nursing and help him learn to cope without the boob all freaking day. I've tried in the last week or two, after we've had a good long nursing session, to take a nursing break for a short while. When he asks again (within 5-10 min of when he just finished) I let him know we're all done right now, we're going to play, or eat, etc and we can nurse again later. He can not accept this at all...it's all out HYSTERICS, that escalate and escalate. He isn't like this in any other part of our day...he has normal toddler tantrums from time to time...but when it comes to nursing, it's like the end of the world if he can't have it right now, all the time. This morning I told him we would nurse again after lunch (2 hr break) and he was in hysterics the entire 2 hours.
Am I expecting too much???? I really don't know if I can sustain this amount of demanding nursing much longer (especially with 2 years of no sleep). I would love to cut down his nursing to 5-6 sessions a day and a couple at night but I have no idea of how to go about doing this without traumatizing him. All of my friends' toddlers have slowed down on their own by this age, but I feel like I'm still nursing a newborn and it's exhausting me.
All that to say, that before we can even consider night weaning, I think I need to start setting some boundaries for our daytime nursing and help him learn to cope without the boob all freaking day. I've tried in the last week or two, after we've had a good long nursing session, to take a nursing break for a short while. When he asks again (within 5-10 min of when he just finished) I let him know we're all done right now, we're going to play, or eat, etc and we can nurse again later. He can not accept this at all...it's all out HYSTERICS, that escalate and escalate. He isn't like this in any other part of our day...he has normal toddler tantrums from time to time...but when it comes to nursing, it's like the end of the world if he can't have it right now, all the time. This morning I told him we would nurse again after lunch (2 hr break) and he was in hysterics the entire 2 hours.
Am I expecting too much???? I really don't know if I can sustain this amount of demanding nursing much longer (especially with 2 years of no sleep). I would love to cut down his nursing to 5-6 sessions a day and a couple at night but I have no idea of how to go about doing this without traumatizing him. All of my friends' toddlers have slowed down on their own by this age, but I feel like I'm still nursing a newborn and it's exhausting me.
