Extended Brea*stfeeding and Weaning

(Long, rambling, post ahead... but some fun photos at the end ;) )

This year August and "World Breastfe*eding Week" came and went and I never posted about it, like I did last year joining other bloggers in a collective blogging of b-feeding photos. My friend Keiko even reminded me of some other collective efforts that took place this year, but I was in Caldas Novas, Brazil, and didn't have internet access.

So, August is going to be over in a minute [I'm actually posting past midnight, but kept the date/time in August, OK?] and I want to finally bring to light a post I wrote back in January. I was waiting for Kateri's "collective blogging" call for people to post photos of older children breas*tfeeding (more on this below) to post it, but then she ended up not writing her post and I kind of forgot about it.

Anyway, in honor of the World B-feeding Week [I am disguising "the B word" because I don't want this post to be easily Google-able given the photos below] and of Linton's weaning, I decided to write this post. The last time I nursed him was in the airplane, when we were landing in Chicago and then here in Philly, since he was about to cry really loudly because his ears hurt. Before that he hadn't been nursing for over two weeks (except for one night when he was crying and wouldn't go back to sleep). Those were the last times, but for me, that afternoon when I nursed him in my grandmother's company (see here) will remain as the main marker of the end of our nursing relationship.

We were both ready for weaning even though he still asks for it once in a while when he sees me undressed (this evening after we took a shower he was telling me that he needed to nurse, not just wanted it), but I explain to him that there is no milk anymore and he's fine with it. I'm glad that these exchanges don't break my heart like I thought they might. With Kelvin (who was 4, not 3 and only nursed in the morning when he came into our bed) it was even easier because I think he was less attached to it and I was just sick and tired of nursing the two of them. I sometimes think it's sad that Linton got one year less than his brother but then again he was night weaned a full 6 months later than his brother and he didn't have to nurse during a pregnancy, so I guess these things even out their nursing years.

I lactated for 5 years 5 months and a few days. I think it was enough :) Kelvin was 4 and Linton 3 years 2 months when they were weaned.

So now on to the "rescued" post, but before, just one link:

I recently just got an email from Moms Rising with a link to this OUTRAGEOUS story about a breastfeeding mom who is being denied assistance to pump for her 7 week old daughter during her 9 hour long clinical knowledge exam to become an M.D. (she already has a Ph.D.).

Post originally written on January 18, 2007.

So, when my friend Kateri announced that she was going to do another b-feeding pictures post (here's her first one, and my two responses to it), this time with older kids nursing, I thought, well, why not participate again? My second post does have photos of my almost 2 year old son Linton nursing, but now [January] he is 31 months old. Kelvin was weaned at four, but I didn't take any photos of him nursing that old (I guess the last ones were from when he was younger than 2).

Well, to be completely honest, I did enjoy the "boost" that Kate's link to my post gave to the blog. You see, I added myself to The Truth Laid Bear (TTLB) ecosystem a while back and I think the highest I ever got was "Crawly Amphibian." Problem is, for some reason, I went back again to being an "Insignificant Microbe" and that didn't change until I was linked to by Kateri and got a lot of hits. I've been a "Lowly Insect" ever since [Now I'm a "Crunchy Crustacean"). I know that part of the problem with TTLB ecosystem is that many people who link to me in their blogs are not part of TTLB, so, maybe more of you could join and we would all "evolve" together :)

Well, back to the photos. I had Kelvin [who is a pretty good photographer] take several (first one below) but then decided to take the self-portrait approach and that worked much better!
[I think you can click on the photos to make them bigger, if not let me know so I can substitute them for bigger versions]

Here he's trying to do a thumbs up for you guys, like I'm doing:*

And now he's waving and smiling -- Hi folks!

Isn't brea*stfeeding the coolest thing?

And about extended nursing? I recently read a great essay about it, written by Jennifer Margulis (whose book Why Babies Do That? I reviewed here last year) in her weekly column in the Ashland Daily Tidings. (Thanks to Miriam Peskowitz for the link).

* Linton didn't learn to do a "thumbs up" until this Summer. I started teaching him on the plane to Brazil and at the end of the trip he had mastered it. I have no idea why he just couldn't do it. .