Sensitivity

It had now been three weeks since I last nursed Tycho. And everything is all fucked up. Well, not everything. Just poop. It's gross. It's all the time. It makes bedtime last for hours. I hate it.

I'm guessing a dairy sensitivity. He has, of course, had cow's milk (and yogurt and cheese) in abundance since he turned a year, but I think that my breastmilk kept his digestive system in check, and now without it everything's going haywire. Bummer.

So, it's elimination diet time. Right now we're giving him half cow's milk and half coconut milk to get him used to it, and once he'll take coconut we'll try a week without dairy and see what happens. Hopefully it helps, because I am so tired of being up to my ears in poop. If all seems good we'll try adding cheese and yogurt back in. I hope he can have them, because he loves the shit out of yogurt and I love cheese and don't want to have to hide it from him, because you know that baby's favorite foods are whatever is on mama's plate.

I guess it's not the worst thing that could happen.

Weaning Mama.

(Yes, another post about weaning. I know.)

Tycho nursed for the last time eleven days ago. I think that means it's official. I've still got a little milk, but I don't think I will breastfeed Tycho again. Sigh.

He's doing great. I was so worried that it would be hard and there would be lots of tears and I might give in and decide now is not the right time, but I guess it was. He certainly hasn't looked back. We're still adjusting a little with how much he needs to eat, but really it's been a non issue.

I'm doing.. less awesome? I have a cold. Of course. And my period is about a million years late. I'm not really charting right now, but I'm roughly keeping track of fertility signs and what have you and while the timing wasn't perfect... maybe? But I didn't feel pregnant. So I gave my body an ultimatum: a period by Sunday or I would take a test.

I thought by throwing that out into the universe my period was sure to show up immediately. But instead I got every pregnancy symptom in the book: Mystery cramping, sensitivity to smells, food aversions and cravings, nausea, fatigue, the whole nine yards. The only thing I didn't experience was breast tenderness, but I think my boobs have been through enough, don't you?

I started to get hopeful and excited about my little maybe baby. Silly me. But I had a negative test on Sunday evening, and another negative the next morning, too. And had I actually been pregnant, it would have definitely been late enough to test. So I wasn't. I'm not. I'm sad. But I went to my mama class on Monday, and a couple friends confirmed that they too thought they were pregnant for the week right after they weaned.

All of those symptoms have faded away now. My period is still MIA, so I'm thinking I probably never actually ovulated at all, that it was delayed for some reason. I'm also finally coming down off this oxytocin withdrawal from weaning and no longer feel (so much) like crawling into bed for eternity, but I'm sad about the baby that I thought was having that never really existed and I still and congested and have a terrible cough, and am just generally feeling kind of meh. Strangely enough, weaning has absolutely been the hardest thing about breastfeeding.

And it's funny, I was so worried about how Tycho was going to take weaning that I didn't even think it about how it would affect me.

Weaned?

We decided to take the plunge. Tycho had been down to nursing once a day in the mornings for a few weeks, sometimes skipping a day entirely because I left for work before he woke up. And that last nursing session was becoming less and less fun for me. I couldn't get him to focus anymore. He'd suck for a minute and then get distracted, but don't you dare put that boob away, mama. Or he would stay latched while doing what I can only describe as baby yoga in my lap. I just felt so. Very. Done.

So we did it. I had to work overnight all week long this week, so it seemed to me like the perfect opportunity. On Sunday morning, while we nursed for the last time (very pleasantly, actually, I might add), I explained that he was a big boy now and after this he wasn't going to nurse anymore and he could have milk in a cup or water or a snack instead. No idea how much actually sunk in, but I feel better doing it. and I'm glad it was a planned thing so I could savor those last moments of our nursing relationship. And then, because I was out so late with work Kyle got up with the baby and let me sleep in. We've let him watch a movie every morning, because that keeps him distracted for a little while, and then once he's been up for a few hours he's fine.

It's been four days. It's been... really easy. Too easy? He has barely even asked and not protested at all when I've said no and my feelings are a little hurt even though this is what I wanted. I've been in a horrible funk and feeling anxious and depressed about nothing, and I'm taking it very personally, and it dawned on my when I was driving home from work this morning at 3 am that I am going through oxytocin withdrawal and OF COURSE I feel like ass. At least I know now that hopefully this dark cloud will pass and I'm not in need of antidepressants again or something. I hope.

Anyway. Weaned. Tycho is weaned. Probably. Weird.

On weaning.

So remember how I was like, maybe I will wean Tycho when I'm in Mexico?


Yeeaaaaah, no.

My mom brought Tycho to pick us up at the airport, and as soon as he saw me he held out his fist to sign milk. I asked if I could have a hug. No, just furious signing to nurse. So I breastfed him in the airport before we could even go home. Not so much weaning.

I'm sooooo ready to  be done, though. I thought I wanted to make it until two and the World Health Organization recommendations, blah blah blah, but right now I'm over it and I totally don't care what the WHO recommends.

We are doing great with the twice a day schedule, so now I am dropping us down to once. We often have once days as it is, if the circumstances are right, but tonight was the first time I've managed to distract him from nursing when I got home from work and I haven't seen him all day, so that's a victory. We actually didn't nurse at all today, because I was leaving just as he woke up, but I'd rather cut out my evening nursing session than the morning one, and why not start today? So I will nurse him in the morning tomorrow, and then not again until Sunday. Hopefully. I have no idea how we will be able to drop that last morning session, but I suppose we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Weaning

Weaning is going... well? I guess I expected it to be a terrible fight, lots of tantrums, and nothing! We nurse twice a day, sometimes only once, and it's not really even been hard. He asks sometimes, but usually I can redirect without too much trouble, or give him a cup of cow's milk or water. Sometimes it's a little bit of a fight, usually before nap time, though, when everything is a fight.

Being that this is easier than I thought it would be I'm seriously considering weaning him for good when Kyle and I leave him with my mom and go to Mexico next month. I feel a little sad about that, but at the same time, I also want to have another baby and I don't want to nurse again, so this trip would be really great timing... I guess we'll have to see how things are going when the time comes.

Little baby dude is growing up. Sigh.

Breastfeeding, 18 months in

I've been meaning to write this post for a while. Maybe not this exact post, as things change all the time, but something about the extended breastfeeding thing, because it certainly is a thing.

I'm so proud that we've made it this far. And I am SO ready to be done. But also not?

Nursing a toddler is such a different thing than when he was a baby. Firstly, he is demanding. He furiously will sign at me for milk, crawl into my lap, yank down my top. But he's also all over the place. It's never JUST nursing anymore. He's looking around, pointing, wiggling, trying to run away while still latched on, driving cars all over my chest, winking at me, demanding to play with my phone, putting his foot on my forehead, giving me a high five, playing peek-a-boo, wiggling, wiggling, WIGGLING.

It's not hard or bad by any means, but it's not exactly going as I imagined, either. Everything I'd heard and read suggested that he would gradually taper off, dropping this nursing session or that one, easy, without us having to work on it no big deal. No big deal, my ass. Tapering off? Ha! My kid loves the boobs. He asks to nurse, oh, all the time. All. The. Time. Typically, on a day I work (and am gone for 10+ hours, mind you) we nurse 5-6 times, on average. Once when he wakes up in the morning. Once, at Ashley's  before I leave for work, again at her house when I arrive to pick him up, once or twice in the evening, and once before bed. Days I'm home, I stopped counting. Add something mid-morning, before and after a nap, random afternoon time, oops I bonked my head, etc. All in all, WAY TOO MUCH.

So I'm weaning. I didn't want it to be something I specifically did, but clearly he's not going to initiate it, so I guess I have to. I don't know if I want to wean him entirely; I really did want to make it until age two, but I would also like to have another baby sometime in the relatively near future, and I don't know if I'm even ovulating yet. I don't know if it's because of nursing or my IUD, or some combination of the two, but I haven't had a period since October 2010, so I'm nervous about that. And should I get pregnant, I can't see myself having any energy left for breastfeeding. And tandem nursing? Totally awesome and inspiring when other people do it. Totally not for me. So. Weaning. Ish.

I've decided just to cold turkey drop us down to twice a day. Once in the morning when he gets up, and once after work/nap/before bed, whatever makes the most sense depending on that day's schedule. We're a couple days in, so far so good.

Kyle and I are going to Mexico without Tycho (!!!) next month, and I am, not entirely seriously, considering weaning him completely while we away for four days. I don't know, I bought a hand pump to help relieve engorgement (Yes, at 18 months I still get engorged. Sigh.), and to keep my supply up, I guess, if that's what I want to do, but I don't know if that's what I want to do. It seems really soon, and really kind of mean, since he loves it so much. And I do love it too, even though I'm tired of it. I suppose we'll see how things look when we get to that point.