I think it's time to wean. Now what?

[laurelg]

I know there's a million and a half of these threads, but I wanted to get my own thoughts out, so I hope y'all don't mind another.

My daughter is 21.5 months old. Ideally, I wanted to nurse until at least two, but I am having hardcore aversions and just can't stand it anymore. (No, definitely not pregnant.) We were already down to nursing maybe once a day, but I don't feel like I can continue even that much.

I have tried talking to her about her latch, and now she even recites what she's supposed to do before she has "ju jus" -- "Mama? Aaaaah - big mouth! Drinks. Get milk out!" The thing is, she's really not going after milk anymore. I don't know if my supply decreased and she went with it, or if she stopped trying and my supply decreased, but I get the impression it isn't as easy anymore (though I still definitely have some milk) and she just doesn't care. She's in it for the non-nutritive sucking, which has been giving me the heebies.

I know it's at least partially hormonal, because the creepy-crawly stuff started coming on around when I'd ovulate and during my period. Now it seems like it's going on all the time. My instinct is that I'm returning to serious fertility, and that's why. I have absolutely no interest in TTC right now, and have an IUD, so that's not a factor in weaning. Unfortunately, I can't turn off those icky feelings no matter how hard I try.

Logically and emotionally, I'd love to continue nursing for a while. She still asks, so I know she'd still like to, though I feel like it's easier on her to be turned down from the get-go than what happens now: I start to let her nurse and then have to take her off, which really upsets her.

I'm just so sad and feel like I can't win. I would happily keep nursing her if I could make the aversions stop, but I don't want to unhappily nurse her if I can't. I have enjoyed nursing her and don't want it to turn into something I hate and dread. To top it all off, she has a little bit of a cold, and I am so sad I don't have the magic milk cure like I have all this time!

What do I do? Is there some way to fix the aversions that I have somehow missed? If not, and we're really done, how do I quit being so sad about it? How do I go about stopping--do I just STOP? I was recently gone for nearly a week with no nursing and no engorgement, so I'm probably at a low enough supply point that I'm not going to hurt myself by going cold turkey. I feel like it would be less traumatic for her at this point to just be DONE and move on, but I don't know.

Help?

[lookatreestar]

i honestly load up on water and milk supply producing foods when i know that time of the month is coming. the ick feelings still happen, just not as severe and we nurse on through. my dd is a little older so i am just honest and tell her that i cannot nurse at said moment in time but will in x amount of time and usually that is enough for her.

as for weaning, that is the age my sister really started the weaning process with dn and she was def done by age 2 and all was fine and dandy. she still takes a paci though

[D_McG]

I weaned around that age. I was matter of fact about it and told them that we'd do all other kinds of fun things instead. they weren't happy about it but they adjusted fine. Honestly I didn't feel any guilt. Especially not the second time around. I very much believe in MLW and that 'icky' feeling is my green light. Time to move on to bigger and better things! I felt a little sad when I weaned my son. with my daughter I was happy. I had learned the first time around how much better things were once we were done nursing. I love nursing babies but right around 18 mos I start to dislike it. No shame in that!