And another phase, one in which my baby now has eight gigantic chompers of death teeth, has begun.
Nom. Nom. Nom. My teeth are huge!
Nom. Nom. Nom. My teeth are huge!Because of the teeth, breastfeeding generally hurts. And I'm sore already because I think my body is trying to figure out how to regulate itself into ovulating, but it has not started having regular cycles (I had one 'real' period in late May.) So even though Gabe isn't biting, his little set of pearly whites is always rubbing me the wrong way.
It's become painful enough that I read a chapter on weaning in a breastfeeding book. I am not going to lie-- I did consider weaning because of this discomfort. But there are a few reasons I am not going to wean at this point: emotional attachment (mostly on MY part-- I am really not ready), economics, nutritional value, and the sheer fact we have made it 8.5 months on just my milk and some solids (only 3.5 to go until my ultimate goal of one year of breastfeeding!). We have to keep going.
Just keep nursing, just keep nursing, just keep nursing, nursing, nursing. (Yes, that was a reference to Finding Nemo.)
Hang in there! Every time my DD got a new tooth I swore I would have to wean her right then and there. There were times I was deathly afraid to put her to the breast. I just knew she was going to bite, and I knew how badly it would hurt. But I got through it, and it did get better.
ReplyDeleteWhen you are ready to wean, take it super slow. It's easiest on both of you that way. AND, be prepared to be super emotional. Your hormones go completely beserko when you wean. For me it was the worst ever. Far worse than pregnancy or the post-partum period. I was hormonally out of control.
I didn't quite make it to a year. I had to wean DD @ 11 months because I had to have surgery (on my hand). But I my original goal had been 6 months, and I knocked that one out of the park! So even though I wasn't ready and was pissed off and bitter about it at the time, I know I did the best I could and ended up satisfied with that.
You're doing a GREAT JOB Mama! Don't ever think otherwise. Even if you decided to wean tomorrow, you have given your child the best possible start in life. Yay for you!