There was a debate recently about nursing and how long a mom should do it for. There was some article that had a photo of a woman and her 2 year old son standing and breastfeeding and it caused quite a stir in the media. Actually I forgot how old he was, but he was larger than normal. They say you should breastfeed for as long as your child wants to. Kids who are weened on their own freewill apparently are smarter and more well adjusted, etc. I stopped breastfeeding my son when he was about 6 months or just a little bit after, when his teeth started coming in. Actually if babies are feeding correctly, once their teeth come in, it shouldn't hinder the breastfeeding process because they shouldn't be using their teeth at all. But I wasn't really producing enough milk and had to supplement at every feeding so it was double the feeding process. I thought it would just be best to slowly ween him off. I think at 6 months, he liked to nurse in order to fall asleep, a comfort sort of thing, more than to actually feed. And some may think 6 months - that isn't long at all. But for me, it was quite painful at times because I used to get clogged milk ducts which really hurt, and I think he was latching on wrong at times, so I was very sore. There were times when it hurt so much I really wanted to give up, especially when feeding was taking place every 2 hours, but I stuck with it for 6 months - through the flu season, to make sure he had his antibodies. The debate brought to surface the stigma that seems to go along with breastfeeding (if your child is big) even though it's one of the most natural things on earth to do. And I suppose there is sort of stigma if you decide not to breastfeed at all. I say if you are able to and can nurse for however long you want, then more power to you.
Today I got head butted in the nose by my son. We once again brought him into our bed after he was crying in his crib around 11PM. Around 7 AM, he sat up to readjust himself and slammed his head down on my nose, and peacefully went back to sleep, all nice and cuddled beside me. It was very sweet actually, but in the meantime, I felt like my head was going to explode. It's 5PM now and my head/nose still hurts. I think it's time to pop another ibuprofin. I bruise pretty easily so I think I might be forming a nice big bruise on the bridge of my nose a week before our scheduled family portrait. Hopefully I won't have a bruise or it will go away by then. But damn that hurt. Kids heads can be really painful. Goes to show this sleeping in the bed thing is not really a good idea. He was also pretty restless in the night and since I'm a light sleeper, I am aware of all his movements which doesn't bode well for a good nights' sleep. My hubby is also afraid if we are fast asleep, the baby could potentially crawl over us and fall/thud in the night, which would totally suck. My bed is pretty high up so a fall would not be pretty. He already did it once before which was awful. And I totally learned my lesson not to leave a sleeping baby in the bed even with pillows around because he surely will attempt to crawl over them when he wakes up. What a scare! But babies are supposedly made of rubber when they're young. The doctor said he was fine..(you do have to keep careful watch those 24 hours after a fall to make sure nothing is wrong like liquid or bleeding from nose/ears / nausea / unusual sleep patterns / unusual play patterns) but I felt my heart leap up through my throat when that happened. Well we don't want any more of those kinds of incidents if we can help it...
And now I've enrolled him in swim lessons for the summer...I'm kind of scared of water but hopefully he won't be. 8 half-hour lessons 8:30 in the morning on Saturdays at the local YMCA. Should be fun I hope! Just because he's raised in the city, doesn't mean he can't learn some essentials like swimming.
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