Thinking About Starting Weaning
I am anticipating many trips in the coming months due to my career, as well as a week-long personal trip without the baby. I have done a lot of reflecting and I've decided to start a slow weaning process. He is about to be 13 months in a few days. I would like to have him fully weaned by 16 months, when I am going away for a week-long trip. I am a just-enougher, and pumping enough milk for even just one full day of feeds is an incredible amount of time and effort for me - it's incredibly discouraging. A single trip away requires planning and literal weeks of pumping at night after baby goes to bed to produce extra bags of milk. Pumping has taken a toll on my mental health and it's just so draining. It feels like a chore and I dread every single pump session. It is no longer sustainable for me. It has become a big source of stress in my life. When I am home with baby I breastfeed. However it has been a few months now that he is slowly losing interest in breastfeeding and he will keep sessions short or skip them altogether. I feel like I am failing him by weaning. I know the recommendation is to go to 24 months but with my reality it just isn't easily feasible. I still feel like I am letting him down. I see lots of posts on this subreddit of moms breastfeeding until past 2 or 3 years old. I feel like such a failure that I can't do that too. And I am scared of going into this next phase of motherhood of no breastfeeding to rely on during hard times, sleepless nights and tantrums.