It is SO happening....

image taken from here

I am quite proud of myself.

Georgie is eleven and a half months now and has been breastfed for the entire time. It hasn't always been easy. I had trouble in the beginning (don't most of us?) and then had some huge problems with thrush, but we got through. And I even kept breastfeeding her through the first three months of this pregnancy. Something which I wasn't sure I could do. It's been hard, but I was aiming to get her to 12 months. So I feel pretty good about that.

But now I really want my body back.

I'm tired. I think being pregnant and breastfeeding is taking a lot out of me, and I just want to have a break. I think if I wasn't pregnant and didn't know that I'll be feeding a newborn again in six months time, I might have waited. I was even thinking about maybe going a bit longer and letting Georgie wean herself. Not, you know forever, but maybe to like fifteen months or so? But now, I just really, really want to stop.

The problem however, is that my little girl, she loves her some boobies. She would feed all the time if I let her. She has three feeds a day, and while she did sleep through for a little while at eight months, now, she will wake up at least once for a feed at night (and sometimes much, much more often). And I need to stop. It hurts (oh! it hurts) especially at night. I thought for a while it was the thrush coming back, but we treated that and it persisted. So now I'm thinking it must just be me.

But the problem is, I don't know how to wean her. She will not touch a bottle. She never has. And that's partly my fault because I never really bothered trying. She won't even drink from a sippy cup very much. I've started trying to get her used to straws, and now she's drinking water pretty well from a straw.

I've been trying to cut down her feeds, but she's been sick, and not herself, and so I find it hard because when she's sick, she just wants to nurse. I'm really scared that I'm going to have to go cold turkey on her, but I cannot stand the thought of having her scream for days when I know I could fix it. I'm also not keen on what it will do to me. My Mum had to do that with my oldest sister, and I know it will only be a few days, but I just don't want to do it. Especially because lately she seems to just be going from cold to cold, plus, I'm still a bit sick, plus, Shane's away a lot in the next few weeks.

My goal was to get her drinking from something else, which I've done with the straw, then stop the night feeding, and then just do it gradually. But it's the night feeding that's the sticking point at the moment. She wakes up, and will scream and scream and scream if I don't go to her and feed her. I can't just be near her or pat her. I must feed her. She's just so strong and has so much stamina! And you know how their crying always seems so much worse in the dead of night?

I'm a bit stuck. I've decided that it is happening. I need to do this, soon. I was thinking about trying to do it gradually over the next two weeks before she turns one, and I was just going to give her cows milk, I figure she's close enough to being one now that it will be okay. But I still just don't really know how to go about it. So I thought I'd send out an SOS. How did you wean your babies? And how do you think I should go about weaning mine? Because she is haarrd. And I am tired. So, ideas? Please?