Images and Text by Jill Petrush Rogers
“My son hasn’t asked for ba-ba’s in 3 days, I’m sad”- my sister-in-law posted.
I thought to myself, “Wait, what?! He’s two. He’s still breastfeeding…really?!”
You see, before my nephew was born, I was never really around a breastfed baby, let alone a toddler!
When I became pregnant, I knew that I wanted to breastfeed (thanks to my sister-in-law and a few other close friends), but my original goal was still one year.
Our first son begrudgingly arrived via c-section on October 17th, 2010. I went against my birth plan 100%. I was angry. I didn’t get the birth that I wanted and I was going to be damned if I failed at breastfeeding too.
Somewhere between day one and year one, not only did we become a breastfeeding family, we became advocates…lactivists, even!
After celebrating our son’s first birthday, my husband and I both thought, “Why cut-him-off? Just because he turned one?!”
And so…we continued.
When we decided to expand our family, I was secretly afraid that my pregnancy would cause him to wean.
When asked, I would tell people that I would continue to breastfeed until one of us no longer wanted to. I was still comfortable in our breastfeeding relationship; so I wanted weaning to be on his terms.
Very early on in my second pregnancy, he decided to go on a hiatus. For four days he did not speak of “milkies”…neither did I.
I cried.
I began mourning the loss of our breastfeeding relationship.
And then, in typically toddler fashion, he asked for “milkies” again.
To say that I was relieved would be an understatement.
He continued to nurse throughout my pregnancy. At 34 weeks I went into pre-term labor, which was thankfully stopped. After that, we had abbreviated nursing sessions. We would talk about what it would be like to have a baby brother and sharing his “milkies”.
On August 17th, 2013, we welcomed our second son, and I became a tandem breastfeeding Mama!
As far as I can tell, weaning is not in our immediate future. He is now 3 ½ years old and more of a milkie monster than ever before. But…he’s a toddler. He has a mind of his own and is quickly gaining his independence.
I may never know when his last nursing session may be, but I can tell you one thing…when it happens, I may just have to call my sister-in-law to tell her that “I’m sad.”
