• It gets tiring at some point and calls for weaning your child off
Image: OZONE
In the spirit of #enoughisenough trending on Twitter post the presidential debate, I find myself echoing the sentiments in my breastfeeding journey.
As you know, my son is crawling his way towards one year of age, which means I have been breastfeeding for almost 11 months. My baby had been hooked to the breast ever since he first tasted it. Due to my difficult delivery, I wasn’t able to feed him for the first 17 hours after birth.
As he was in the nursery for observation, I had to make several trips to the NICU from my room to feed him in the night. The nurse was at her wits' end, the baby would not calm down until he got mummy’s milk. And so our journey has been for the last 11 months. However, this morning I found myself at my wits' end when he had been latched on the breast for more than two hours in the early morning, and he still didn’t want to break free.
The baby has long started his solids journey and has a fulfilling dinner and plenty of water before bed. However, he still refuses to sleep without breastfeeding and will wake up several times in the night to feed. His new trend is latching on for a couple of hours or more during the wee hours of the morning. If I take it away, he will wake up. I understand every baby is different; there are those who choose to breastfeed and those who wean off it naturally at an early age.
I firmly believe that a year’s worth of breastfeeding is good enough for the baby. I have always wanted to cut off my child from breastfeeding as soon as he starts yanking your clothes in public to get to the boob. At the rate we are going, I think weaning my son will probably be one of the hardest things I will do. I must also mention that he refused formula, Sippy cups and bottles at an early age. He would literally rather drink from the cup like an adult than take a baby bottle. This makes the weaning process that much harder.
I am mentally and physically drained from breastfeeding, I feel like I have neared the end of my journey. However, the more I want to stop, the more he wants to latch on. As we make our way towards the one-year mark of his infant life, I have decided to make conscious steps into weaning him off the breast. I do get exhausted and want to give up altogether at times because of how difficult it is. I understand that the decision might be good for me but one he is not ready for. However, when we have nights like tonight, I know weaning him off is the best decision for us moving forward.