The last 48 hours soa has been continuously hungry. She was peaceful and easy on Sunday, but then Sunday night morphed into a starveling who needed both breasts every two hours. Yesterday I was a pale shadow of myself – not because of the actual feeding, but because of the lack of sleep around it.
I am not good on interrupted sleep. I remember being so shattered when Small didn’t night wean until around 18 months, and how pathetically grateful I was when he finally did. (@ThePortico I’m hoping that if necessary I can repeat the magic visit with soa in a year or so? 😉 )
So yesterday was tough – she continued to feed very often, and the only breaks were things like walking to Beavers with Small (good walk actually, and seemed to settle him down a little, so that was good. Plus he didn’t seem nearly as upset by leaving the house, wonder if walking to a place makes it feel nearer and therefore more under his control? Hm). Sitting at Beavers with a book (Mindfully Green: A Personal and Spiritual Guide to Whole Earth Thinking
since you asked so nicely. Quite nicely written with an unexpected Buddhist slant – well, I hadn’t expected it anyway – but so far lacking anything much in the way of new or practical ideas. I am only in part 1 of 3 though.) I fed her pretty continuously for about 40 minutes, then we wrapped up again and walked partway home, meeting Tim at the convenience store where he was grabbing milk.
Milk was a good thing to have bought. We’d run out of yoghurts and bourbons, Small’s desserts of choice, so it was emergency pancakes for afters instead. Not a thing that’s ever going to give rise to complaints from me. I love pancakes. So does Small it appears 😀
Anyway, I’ve drifted a long way from the original topic. At our baby massage class, soa is the only baby still exclusively breastfed, and one of only two not already being weaned. This despite the official advice that babies should start weaning around six months and not sooner. The thing is, by this stage they look about ready. They are almost sitting up, and pretty much everything they grab heads into their mouths, increasing the feeling that they are really hungry.
But I know soa isn’t really ready. She is satisfied by my breastmilk, even if it sometimes feels like she’s going to wear out the delivery mechanism. I am fortunate enough to have a hugely supportive network of family and friends accepting of my choice to keep on with the breastfeeding and so far I haven’t had so much as one dismissive comment while out and about. So we’ll soldier on through, and I hope you’ll all forgive me for incoherent blogposts brought to you one handed and with matchstick propped eyelids.
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