"Anne Rogers" wrote in message
...
I think we really are done breastfeeding, DD just has no interest
whatsoever, I feel sad about this, I respect that emotionally she is in
that place, but I know she hasn't read the books, or the research and I'm
convinced it would have been better for both of us if we'd nursed another 6
months (she's 18 months).

I've looked back over our nursing relationship to try and figure out the
reasons for this unusual timing in self weaning, I think in the main it is
her personality, she almost never comfort nursed, she almost never nursed
to sleep, even as a tiny newborn, she would nurse til she was full, stop,
than lay awake for half an hour before sleeping. She also sorted out her
own sucking comfort, she's not a thumb sucker, but she does this trick
with two fingers that's equivalent, I hope we don't have trouble getting
her to drop that.

Then there are circumstances, stuff that happened during our nursing
relationship, the big thing would be at 11 mths, when I had a bad
accident, for the next 3 months, I couldn't carry her, she was always
brought to me to feed and was cared for by other people, kind people
delayed the nursing sessions and cut them down to the bare essentials,
this can't have helped in the long term.

So now I find myself looking ahead, was a nursing session that I can't
even remember, around Thanksgiving, my last ever? I hope not, but DH is
saying he doesn't want more kids, the last 19mths have been very hard on
us all, we are very lucky, having a boy and a girl. For me, I want to
leave things open, I don't know whether it's my hormones or what, but
getting my body ready for pregnancy is a big motivation for me when I'm
doing physio exercises or a session in the therapy pool. Also, having
moved to the US from the UK, I'm not able to work, by the time I am able
to work (6 years), it could well be very difficult to get a job that I
would like and with the nature of DH's job, it's unlikely that I'd have to
work and take a job that I was less content with and lower paid, but at
27, looking ahead to a life of motherhood to two children seems a little
empty. Thankfully we'd always agreed to wait, I do not want to be pregnant
right now, so we've got time to get on with life and see what happens.

I'll still be hanging around on mkb and mkp, though both seem quite quiet
at the moment, I'm also hoping to become a breastfeeding supporter,
probably through la leche league.

Cheers
Anne
Congratulaions, Anne, on getting Ada to 18 months! You've done such a good
job! I'm feeling the sadness as Jessica's no longer interested in
breastfeeding. I still express, and I offer her her the breast first, but
she doesn't want to know, even for comfort. Still, since I said I didnt want
to BF when I was pg with her, I'm proud to have got her to six months - even
if I then plaaned to do a year. I'll just give her EBM for as long as I can.

Please do hang around tho - it was you amongst others that helped me get
through my pregnancy, and helped me feed Jessica, and I really appreciate
it. I hope that others will be helped by you too, and becoming a la leche
supporter sounds a fantastic choice for you.

Congratulations again!

Lucy x