Weaning Four Year Old

[OldMcDonald]

I am quite conflicted about breastfeeding and cosleeping with my just turned four year old DS. He adores milk and cuddles. I do too, sometimes.

I have imposed limits because it was getting too much for me. He can feed before going to sleep at night, at wake up time, as he goes down for his nap, and then from when he wakes up half way through his nap until after we've finished a book or TV programme. When he's ill this gets relaxed a bit and it slowly drives me bonkers. I loose it and shout at him that he's not a baby and I don't want to feed him etc. I worry that by feeding him I am inadvertently damaging him by not being able to cope with it. When he's not ill things generally tick along okay, although I'd like time with my DH in bed.

DH is mostly able to get him to sleep at night if I'm out, although sometimes there are protests and, on bad nights, after I get back there are repeated requests for milk in the night.

He used to feed solidly from about 5am until he woke up. Now he needs hugs from 5am instead. I still get no sleep after 5am.

Moving him into his own room seems completely out of the question at the moment. There seems no way on earth to get him to do this.

Pushing him to have less milk just seems to result in him pushing back harder. Behaviour goes to pot, sleep becomes scarcer. (We only moved to our current feeding pattern in the last few months. Before that nights were restricted but he had milk much more during the day.)

I guess I just want to hear from others who fed to this age about how weaning happened to reassure me it will happen.