DS (nearly 4) has decided it is time to stop breastfeeding

[FrannyandZooey]

I have been feeling a bit wobbly about this for various reasons, and have spoken to some of you about it already (everyone has been totally lovely about it, thank you).

However I am now mostly feeling good about the fact that I was able to breastfeed him until he decided he was ready to stop, and also proud of him for having reached the stage where he feels he doesn't need it any more.

I thought there were probably very few threads about this on MN so worth starting this one for that reason alone.

Come and join me in a mostly celebratory mood as I pass round lentil canapes and raise a glass of carrot juice

Franny, it is as importnat that YOU enjoy bf as your child. Sometimes I don't like ds climbing onto my lap for a feed, sometimes I love it. It is part of motherhood being totally fed up sometimes

getting there with the sling, trying a little bit every now and then in the house after all practise makes perfect

I never realised when dd and ds stopped bf, it was so gradually, to once in a few days when upset. So I could tell you which month ot happened but not more than that

the dts like the morning one the best as well, I have to say its the evening one that I struggle with. I just feel to knackered after getting them all ready for bed, to do that as well. they get really hyped up as well, raring around upstairs, so don't feed so well.
In the morning, they literally troop into my bedroom and jump up onto the bed, and position them either side of me. V sweet,and I milk it (geddit ) for all its worth and get a cup of tea in bed, and effectively a lie in, as sometimes I doze while they are doing it
The afternoon one is hit or miss, as I don't like it when they ask me for milk when we are out I think a lot of people assume that I have given up, so are shocked when it comes up in conversation

Franny, your story is a brilliant example to others, like me, who couldnt see any reason to stop breastfeeding but had never heard of extended breastfeeding before coming on mumsnet.

Huge congratulations to you for what you have given your ds, and on the end of this phase of your life together

Thanks for lending me the nursing toddler book - I thought it was so good I ended up buying a copy for a close friend as a gift.

Well done franny. I bf dd until she was 3.5 and she self-weaned. I had cut it down to just the evening feed and I don't think there was much milk there at all really.

I was nowhere near as sad as I thought I would be when she stopped, probably because I knew she had made the decision for herself when she felt it was right.

F&Z I can't leave this tread without adding that we also intoduced bottles really late with 2 of our 3 toddlers and I could see doing it again for #4... You may be about to uncover another well kept secret.

That's a mighty fine pair of pompoms you have there, too

Thanks everyone, you are all so kind and you will not believe what happened today:

MY MOTHER ADMITTED SHE THOUGHT I HAD DONE THE RIGHT THING IN FEEDING DS TILL HE SELF-WEANED

it nearly choked her but she did it. I am utterly shocked by this. I suppose it just goes to show that you can affect people's perceptions purely by providing a positive image of the behaviour in question. Thank you all for your support (beginning to feel a bit like Gwynnie at the Oscars now so will stop but I do mean it )