my son weaned himself today..(update #14)

[daisymommy]

As you milk supply decreases, often your let-down reflex will be much slower as well. I have really noticed this with my own body in the last couple of months. Babies quickly figure out which side takes too long for their patience, and they will sometimes start to favor one side. I have actually only been nursing on one side for months now as a result. DS kept rejecting nursing if I offered the left side, so I would go straight to the right, and he went back to nursing. But I can tell he is weaning too. And there have been many a teary day here! I totally 100% understand you on feeling devastated. You are not being silly at all. It is a hard process of letting go of that very special, unique bond between you and your baby. It may not be over yet; he may still come back for awhile though. Hugs to you!

[mikala]

and citymama - "devastated" was the exact word i used to describe to DH how i felt last nite when i thot ds was done for good. dh was sort of laughing and thought i was being a drama queen! ok, whatever...he just doesn't get it.
f.

Yay!! So glad to hear he came back to it. DS went on a nursing strike around that age during an illness and ended up weaning entirely. Devastated was definitely an appropriate term in our situation so I don't think it's being dramatic at all.

Hope he continues nursing for as long as both of you want to!

[♥ms.pacman♥]

thx for the replies. as for a plugged duct, it seems unlikely since the times i had a plugged duct it was REALLY painful and obvious. and it didn't seem like he had an ear infection because he seemed fine laying on that side on the nursing pillow, sucking his thumb, it was only when i tried to encourage him to actually get onto the breast that he seemed annoyed. also, when he was sick with a cold in the past (3 wks ago) he was happy to nurse 5x a day (it helped his congestion).

though DS did wake up this morning with a runny nose (argh!), so maybe he is coming down with somethng and that was affecting him. i'll guess i'll just have to wait and see what happens. thanks all for the hugs and advice!

[♥ms.pacman♥]

ok another update..so at bedtime tonight i tried nursing ds again...at first he didn't want to take his thumb out of his mouth and seemed a bit annoyed when i tried to get him to nurse (on preferred side), so i just let him lie there for a while on the nursing pillow. then after 1 minute or so he suddenly went for it. and nursed for 20minutes (pretty long, usually he is done in 5-10mins). he did fall asleep quickly into it, but still. i don't know, i guess nowadays he just has to be in the right mood to nurse or whatever, rather than it just being a given thing.

however, after this nursing session i'm reminded of one of the reasons i had been wanting to wean...ds has 7 teeth, and they are sharp. he's never intentionally bitten me, but every now and then when he falls into a really deep sleep (like he did tonight) while nursing he sometimes ends up biting me, and OW OW OW that hurts.

anyway, i feel better about the whole weaning thing. i know i'm likely going to stop nursing ds by the end of the year. i guess the thing that shocked me the other day was that it *totally* caught me off guard that he suddenly didn't want to nurse. i guess i was unfamiliar with the concept of a "nursing strike".

[SnuggleBuggles]

Just seeing this now. ds1 had a nursing strike at 10m (which I associate with an allergic reaction I had to antibiotics the same day). It only lasted 24 hours but he wouldn't nurse at all. I hadn't realized how much I cared about bf'ing till then. Thankfully things just went right back to normal the next day. The day it was going on though I was so torn...I'd made it to 10m so that was great but not a year which was my goal so not as good plus I missed it.

GL!!!
Beth

[Momto1]

however, after this nursing session i'm reminded of one of the reasons i had been wanting to wean...ds has 7 teeth, and they are sharp. he's never intentionally bitten me, but every now and then when he falls into a really deep sleep (like he did tonight) while nursing he sometimes ends up biting me, and OW OW OW that hurts.

Ouch! I know what you mean, DD was/is the same way. Now when I nurse her to sleep I have to make sure to pull my nipple out of her mouth before she gets too sleepy and clamps down. I've gotten it down to a science - there's a moment where she's asleep enough to not fight me removing the nipple, but still awake enought that she's not yet clamping down on me.

[brittone2]

Ouch! I know what you mean, DD was/is the same way. Now when I nurse her to sleep I have to make sure to pull my nipple out of her mouth before she gets too sleepy and clamps down. I've gotten it down to a science - there's a moment where she's asleep enough to not fight me removing the nipple, but still awake enought that she's not yet clamping down on me.