Weanxiety

So…the weaning is going well. Much better than I thought it would, actually. Jonah has thrown pretty big fits lasting 30 minutes or more the last two mornings when I wouldn’t nurse him when he woke up at 7 a.m., and smaller mini-fits throughout the day, but after we get past the morning tantrum, our days have been pretty much “normal”. He is clingier than usual, but I’m just enjoying the extra snuggles! Those morning fits have been a bit heartbreaking for me, because after he gets mad, he gets sad. And when he’s sad because I won’t nurse him, it makes me feel like he feels that I don’t love him. But I know that I do and he knows that I do – I keep telling myself that.

I’m a little sad that I didn’t commemorate the last time I ever nursed him – to be honest, he woke up from his nap Friday in a terrible mood and I nursed him to calm him down. I was so preoccupied with getting the family ready to go out of town that I didn’t relish that last time as much as I wish I would have.

But then again, I nursed the child for 23-and-a-half months. Which means I nursed him literally over a thousand times. And there were many of those thousand that I cherished the time spent nursing him. I know I did.

 I’ve started to get a little nervous, though about what will happen when this process is truly complete. When my milk dries up (that seems to be going fine, I’m not really even uncomfortable), will my hormones go crazy? After I weaned Sophie I started taking the birth control pill immediately and I got crazy depressed, as you may recall. But since then I’ve wondered if the hormone shift from weaning could’ve had something to do with that, too. I’ve found myself biting my nails about this possibility more than once the past couple of days. Crazytown is not a locale I want to visit again anytime soon. I won’t be taking the pill this time around since I’ve had my tubes tied, so I guess if I go nutso I’ll know that hormones did have a big part in that, and if I don’t that it was purely the devilish pill.
How old were your babies when you weaned them? Did you have any trouble with anxiety or depression afterward? I’d be interested to hear your experiences.

 

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4 Replies to “Weanxiety”

  1. I stopped nursing Zion at 21 months. It went really well actually. Maybe a little too well because he didn’t fight it at all! I really didn’t have any hormone changes other than feeling a little sad sometimes because it was over. I did drop another pant size though and that was really nice because I had figured I wasn’t going to lose anymore weight! So that was my shinning light at the end of nursing!

  2. I stopped nursing my two girls each time when they reached 12 months. I will admit I am one of those mamas that made 12 months my goal and was ready to be done when I got there! I’m sure the fact that by that point I was mostly pumping anyway had a lot to do with that – lugging equipment back and forth to work was getting on my last nerve! All that to say I DID cherish the time with my precious babies and was still sad when it was over in that way.
    I think this time around I did have a few depressed feeling days but was okay for the most part. Maybe having that self-awareness this time will help you when you can write off some of the moodiness to frenemy hormones!
    Best of luck to you! Glad it’s going so well so far! 🙂

  3. I’m still nursing my 2yr old and she has shown 0% desire to wean on her own! I decided to wait until all the holidays are over to try so I don’t have the extra stress right now. I nursed my son until he was 2 and he pretty much self weaned. I didn’t have any major hormonal changes with him. One thing that helped with him though was I still cuddled and held him when I would give him a cup of milk. I think it helped us both really to still have that time when I just held him. He still wants to snuggle in the morning and before bed when he had his cup of milk and he is 5.

  4. Each of my kids was different, but I didn’t get depressed at all with any of them. I must say, I am extremely envious because each of mine were extremely painful when I stopped. So glad for you that you aren’t having that!! Good luck!! 🙂

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