DS is 18mo, still BFing several times a day: usually a short feed after waking in the morning, a longer 30-60min feed before his pm nap and another long feed before bed, plus a few "snacks" during the day and at least one to two feeds during the night, sometimes more.Â
He's always been very acrobatic (lots of on-off-on-off & switching sides) despite efforts to get him to be more mannerly, and he's never been a great sleeper he didn't take daytime naps until after his first birthday and still skips them many days. As I said, he usually wakes at least once or twice a night both for milk and for comfort feeding. He never took a bottle, and was EXBF so every single feed has been my full responsibility for the past year & a half and I am still the only one who can put him to bed (he usually feeds to sleep). We've tried having DH go to him during the night to try to comfort him, but DS just goes crazy and works himself into a frenzy until I go to him.
DH and I are exhausted and although I really love BFing, I'm feeling ready to stop. On the bad nights, when he's up a lot, I get resentful and angry towards him, and I hate that. If there were some signs that he was starting to self-wean and cut back and even sleep through the night (something he's only done a few times), I would be happy to keep going, but there haven't been many signs of him heading that direction.
I just don't know what to do. DD was so easy in comparison -- she self-weaned at 16mo when I was pregnant w/ DS and it was a completely painless, stress-free process for us both.Â
DS is my last child, so this will be the end of BFing for me. I mostly love our time together, but something has to change.
Is it possible to somehow help steer him gently towards self-weaning? Or is there something else I could try? DH and I are at our wits' end.