From the moment I became pregnant with my first child I knew I wanted to be a breastfeeding mama. I always wanted to do what I felt was the best for my child and breastfeeding was at the top of that list. I’m a reader y’all. So when the time came, I was reading all the articles and researching all the things. If I was about to take this on I knew I had to approach it in a factual matter. Breastfeeding turned out to be one of the hardest parts of new mom life I took on. BOTH TIMES.
But from the outside looking in, your probably wouldn’t have been able to tell. I never complained when RJs latch was so bad it split my nipple open. You never would have known that I got thrush on both nipples with Zayn and whenever it was time to latch it looked like we were waiting to jump in the rope for double dutch. You know the move. Back and forth. Back and forth. Pacing yourself until its finally the right moment to JUST JUMP IN. I cried whenever he finally did latch. I’m not going to sugarcoat it for y’all and say it was easy because it was HARD. But I took it all in stride because the benefits, the bond, the moments I were not in pain were some of the most amazing moments I’ve shared with my sons to date.
So when it was time to wean I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.
What I didn’t know, was who it was going to be the hardest for. Trust me both times, as soon as the boys turned 1 I started to get flooded with the “when are you going to wean him?”questions. My body, that I was already sharing with another person (and had been for almost two years) suddenly became everybody else’s business. Everybody for whatever reason seemed to be so pressed on me stopping, even though there are proven benefits to extended breastfeeding. Still I persevered. And believe me when I say, there were times when I questioned my decision and just wanted my body back. I wondered if I was still benefitting them or just doing it because I didn’t want to deal with the middle of the night screaming that would surely come with night weaning.
But like every other part of motherhood, the decision to wean came easiest when I was making it for myself.
And heads are probably rolling in the breastfeeding community with the title of this post alone. Cold turkey weaning for a breastfed child is looked at as the equivalent to a torture chamber. But it worked for my boys. It worked for me. Everyone is happy. I stopped breastfeeding cold turkey and I don’t feel guilty about it at all.
