For awhile now, I have been saying that it will soon be time to wean Maggie, and for awhile now I have been coming up with all sorts of inventive and compelling reasons why I can't do it right this second. Or this one. Or this one, either. Part of the problem is that Maggie does not at all feel that it is time to wean, and I thought that it would be easier when she was a tiny bit older and I could explain it all to her a little bit, but it is actually harder because she is so freakishly verbal that she is explaining things to me, instead. ("Sit here, Mama. I want milk! Milk, Mama? Yeah, yeah!") Part of the problem is that she is still waking up quite often at night, and as much as I know that it's a bad habit, it is easier to just nurse her back to sleep than it is to negotiate with her highly opinionated little self at 4 in the morning. Part of it is that I have no prior experience, which I know seems weird because Maggie is not, after all, the first child I have weaned, but weaning Max was a completely different experience because he was not an exclusive nurser, because he was a more enthusiastic solid food eater, and because I got pregnant with Maggie when Max was 11 months old and he more or less weaned himself when my milk dried up. With no pressure of an impending new baby, it is much harder to cut off the relationship. I think mostly, though, it is hard because I have loved it so much, and treasured the closeness of that bond, and because, now that Maggie can walk, talk, solve complex mathematical equations, and more or less rule the world, breastfeeding is the last tenuous strand connecting this bold amazon of a toddler with babyhood, and I am not ready for her not to be a baby. Do you suppose there is some sort of solution that allows me to keep Maggie a soft cuddly baby forever and ever, and yet also allows me to sleep through the night once in awhile?
Monday, January 05, 2009
Maggie, Maggie, Milkmaid
For awhile now, I have been saying that it will soon be time to wean Maggie, and for awhile now I have been coming up with all sorts of inventive and compelling reasons why I can't do it right this second. Or this one. Or this one, either. Part of the problem is that Maggie does not at all feel that it is time to wean, and I thought that it would be easier when she was a tiny bit older and I could explain it all to her a little bit, but it is actually harder because she is so freakishly verbal that she is explaining things to me, instead. ("Sit here, Mama. I want milk! Milk, Mama? Yeah, yeah!") Part of the problem is that she is still waking up quite often at night, and as much as I know that it's a bad habit, it is easier to just nurse her back to sleep than it is to negotiate with her highly opinionated little self at 4 in the morning. Part of it is that I have no prior experience, which I know seems weird because Maggie is not, after all, the first child I have weaned, but weaning Max was a completely different experience because he was not an exclusive nurser, because he was a more enthusiastic solid food eater, and because I got pregnant with Maggie when Max was 11 months old and he more or less weaned himself when my milk dried up. With no pressure of an impending new baby, it is much harder to cut off the relationship. I think mostly, though, it is hard because I have loved it so much, and treasured the closeness of that bond, and because, now that Maggie can walk, talk, solve complex mathematical equations, and more or less rule the world, breastfeeding is the last tenuous strand connecting this bold amazon of a toddler with babyhood, and I am not ready for her not to be a baby. Do you suppose there is some sort of solution that allows me to keep Maggie a soft cuddly baby forever and ever, and yet also allows me to sleep through the night once in awhile?
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5 comments:
Well interestingly enough, i was watching 20/20 the other night on this very subject. Some women were still breastfeeding their older children and i mean 6 years old i think was the oldest but could have been 8. So whats the rush i say? Go for it, take as long as you like, if Maggie is in high school and still breastfeeding that might pose a problem but who knows for sure. Likely you will both stop before that point, i am hoping :)
Thanks, Auntie P! It's not so much that I think she is ridiculously old to still be nursing or anything. It's more the night time waking -- I feel like when I complain or look haggard, there is a resounding unsympathetic chorus of "well, if you weaned her, she'd probably break the habit ..."
You could always have another baby (-:
(said half kiddingly)
Yeah, because Maggie would find being weaned and being supplanted as the resident baby much less traumatic than just plain weaning.
Joey slept through the night only when he was weaned so I know the situation. At the same time it doesn't last forever and then it is over, as you know. Jean
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