Friday 9 March 2012

Giving up.

I am still feeding M.

He likes it because it's easy and cuddly and warm and tastes good. (I presume, he's nine and a half months old, he can't tell me any of this).

I like it because it's easy and cuddly and free and it doesn't involve boiling kettles at the last minute and then desperately sticking them in the freezer in the hope they'll cool down, or midnight trips to the all night chemist, or washing up.

But mostly, this time, I like it because he's my baby.

I never had this with any of the others.  I stopped feeding L at about eight months because I was fed up of nursing bras and I wanted some new ones. (B obliged with a Christmas trip to Rigby & Peller).  I stopped feeding S and A at about seven months because they'd got too big to feed at the same time (they kept bashing their heads) and there was a wedding I wanted to go to to which they weren't invited.


That's it, incidentally. The last feed.  It was also the last day they woke up in the middle of the night.  I still try not to take that personally.

(Can I also take a moment to point out that I am not a werewolf? That's L's head just out of the picture, and her hair on my hand. Not a major hirsuitism problem.)

Anyway, the point is that neither decision was difficult. Neither decision was, in fact, much discussed or thought about. I simply decided to stop and stopped.

But M's different, somehow.  He's my baby.  My last baby.  The last time I feed him will be the last time I feed anyone.   I wouldn't say I particularly enjoy breastfeeding. It's just a thing I do, like cutting my fingernails or blowing my nose, not remarkable enough to be enjoyed or disliked.  Yet despite that I find myself very reluctant to stop, to move on from the baby stage.  To accept that this is the end.

I said, half-jokingly, but safe in the knowledge that my children get teeth late, that I would stop when he got teeth.

His first came through today.

I also said, half-jokingly, that I'd stop when I got the chance to do something else.

We are away for two nights at the beginning of April (another wedding), and I am trying to work out if I can fit a pump in my luggage.

I said I'd stop when I got fed up of nursing bras and breast-feeding clothes.

I went back into those Rigby & Peller numbers about three weeks ago.   I have perfected the art of breast-feeding contortionism.

I said I'd stop when he stopped.

And so I find myself in a position of willing my baby to reject me, while knowing I will be terribly upset when he does.  Because then it isn't my decision and I don't have to make it.  It's up to him.  And if he doesn't want it then there's no point in wondering whether I should give it to him or not.  I won't be able desperately to hang on to my baby because he won't be a baby any more. Right?

Really, I know I should just give up.  Move him on to formula (which he'll take quite happily in extremis - crisis moments such as me going to the theatre, or someone's birthday drinks), let him grow his teeth in peace and enjoy the wedding without worrying about unsightly leakage, my supply drying up or just being highly uncomfortable.

Yet, somehow, it's still not a decision I'm ready to make.

Sometimes I think I should just get over myself.

11 comments:

  1. I think you should give up when you feel you want to. Doesn't sound like that is right now. But beware of the "let the baby decide" approach. Some of them don't. Some of them want to breastfeed until 2 years old - and THEN you try giving up, when you have a wilful toddler who can follow you around! (Sounds like I speak from experience, but I don't. I did 10 months, 13 months, 12 months.)

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    1. I don't really want to. But I'm concerned that I'll never really want to because of some slightly weird desire to keep my baby a baby, even when he's 15 and opening the batting...(or not, this is a rugby town).

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  2. I remember feeling the same way with both of mine, but with your last it's particularly hard. I finally stopped both of mine at 10 months, but did it very gradually, somehow it was easier that way.

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  3. He's only getting two feeds a day (morning and evening) as it is, so dropping them really can't be that protracted a process I don't think! It's the making up my mind to do it that seems to be time consuming!

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  4. Am impressed I thought feeding twins would be hard, but look at you! I struggled doing it with one each time x

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    1. Well obviously that's because I'm supermum.... or alternatively it took quite a lot of swearing, tears, determination and one very very inspiring community midwife (herself a mum of twins) but once I got the hang of it, it was fine - easier in some ways than doing one, because that cushion supported their weight completely, leaving my hands free for useful things like remotes and phones!

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  5. Oh I know that feeling, very hard to let it go with the last one...:( love the pic btw!

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    1. Thank you! And glad to have sympathy! Can't help feeling that I'm essentially being a little selfish (ironic, when all the pro-breastfeeding guff goes on about how selfless we breastfeeding mothers are, really). I don't think M gives a monkeys as long as he gets fed!

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  6. I think you have to do what is best for you adn nothing wrong with wanting to keep them a baby for as long as you can,. it is a big world and there is plenty of time to grow up

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    1. That's a lovely way of putting it! Thank you.

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  7. Your predicament is real and hurtful. All new mothers face this problem but most get around it somehow or the other. What i want to know is what your partner thinks about it? It seems that you are not ready and will never be completely ready to give up, but that does not mean that it is correct. Even though it is an extremely personal decision, but sharing the story here means that you are willing to listen to all the input you can get. In my opinion, your husband is the person who should be making the decision for you and forcing you the stick to it.

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I know. I'm sorry. I hate these word recognition, are you a robot, guff things too, but having just got rid of a large number of ungrammatical and poorly spelt adverts for all sorts of things I don't want, and especially don't want on my blog, I'm hoping that this will mean that only lovely people, of the actually a person variety, will comment.

So please do. Comments are great...