I am working on a weaning plan for Connor. Didn't think I'd say that, I thought I'd nurse him for a LOOOOONG time, and that when he quit, I'd still pump. But the fact of the matter is, I'm ready. I'm done.
This 3rd baby has been physically, emotionally harder on me than I admitted, and it wasn't until a middle-of-the-night-bawling-my-eyes-out-serious-relationship-talk with my hubby that I realized just how run-down and exhausted and utterly stressed out I am. Our marriage is/was(?) on the brink of collapse (and has a long road now to recover), and a big part of that is my pure exhaustion and my near obsessive focus on the kids, and very little focus on my husband and our marriage. I am working hard on re-prioritizing, which includes focussing on ME, then on hubby, which means taking just a bit of focus off the kids (not much, but...a bit)
Anyway...I want to wean Connor. This is not a new thought, I've been considering it for over a year. He nearly weaned during my pregnancy, I kept him going, knowing that he really needed it. He's 3.5 now. He often uses breastfeeding as a bargaining chip. I've been setting limits, making "rules" and sometimes outright refusing to nurse him more and more often. I often do the "you can nurse for 10 seconds" thing, which turns into 30seconds by the time we count to 10 together.
I think my plan is that I'm going to wait until he sees Immunology the end of Sept and we get all those labs back, I want to make sure that there isn't anything else funky going on with immune system that would guilt me into continuing to nurse him. But if we find just his mild immune deficiency again, and nothing more, then I'm going to press onward with weaning. Gently, of course, continuing my distraction, the count-downs, etc. We're going to talk a lot about what it means to be a Big Boy (he recently potty trained, so that will help).
SO...any other ideas specific to special needs kiddos? What about the immune issues? What else can I add to his diet to help replace the breastmilk? He gets Vit D, Omegas, probiotics now. Any other thoughts for things that would specifically help a t-cell deficit?
Any suggestions on how to help me feel not so guilty?
This 3rd baby has been physically, emotionally harder on me than I admitted, and it wasn't until a middle-of-the-night-bawling-my-eyes-out-serious-relationship-talk with my hubby that I realized just how run-down and exhausted and utterly stressed out I am. Our marriage is/was(?) on the brink of collapse (and has a long road now to recover), and a big part of that is my pure exhaustion and my near obsessive focus on the kids, and very little focus on my husband and our marriage. I am working hard on re-prioritizing, which includes focussing on ME, then on hubby, which means taking just a bit of focus off the kids (not much, but...a bit)
Anyway...I want to wean Connor. This is not a new thought, I've been considering it for over a year. He nearly weaned during my pregnancy, I kept him going, knowing that he really needed it. He's 3.5 now. He often uses breastfeeding as a bargaining chip. I've been setting limits, making "rules" and sometimes outright refusing to nurse him more and more often. I often do the "you can nurse for 10 seconds" thing, which turns into 30seconds by the time we count to 10 together.
I think my plan is that I'm going to wait until he sees Immunology the end of Sept and we get all those labs back, I want to make sure that there isn't anything else funky going on with immune system that would guilt me into continuing to nurse him. But if we find just his mild immune deficiency again, and nothing more, then I'm going to press onward with weaning. Gently, of course, continuing my distraction, the count-downs, etc. We're going to talk a lot about what it means to be a Big Boy (he recently potty trained, so that will help).
SO...any other ideas specific to special needs kiddos? What about the immune issues? What else can I add to his diet to help replace the breastmilk? He gets Vit D, Omegas, probiotics now. Any other thoughts for things that would specifically help a t-cell deficit?
Any suggestions on how to help me feel not so guilty?
)
).
