Breastfeeding Callum has been such a completely opposite experience from nursing Everett. Let's compare.
In the early newborn days:
Everett had a terrible latch, lost weight, milk didn't come in, cracked/bleeding/general ouchiness prevailed. Had to nurse/pump/supplement for the first month or so.
Callum latched right away, nursed like a pro, never had a problem.
About 2 months - 9 months:
This was actually a pretty similar stage. Both boys loved nursing and did so frequently. Everett always took longer to finish a session than the piggy Callum.
9 months:
Nursing strikes for both. Everett's lasted a couple weeks and he was just distracted. I could usually get him to nurse anyway. Callum was uber distracted. There was very little sitting down and nursing at all.
10-11 months:
Everett's back to happy nursing. He was nursing in the morning, during lunch break, after work, and before bed.
Callum. Oh Callum. I guess since his newborn days were so easy, he had to make it difficult later on, right? While he will still happily nurse before bed, once during the night, and upon waking, daytime nursings are almost always a struggle. He's just TOO busy. He absolutely doesn't have time to be cuddled and nursed. So I pump. Usually twice/day I'll pump him a 3-4 oz bottle and he gleefully takes it and downs it in minutes. I'm not going to get into an argument about whether babies ever self-wean before 12 months because he does still nurse, just not during the day. And there are occasions that I can get him to nurse during the day.
As a result of this annoyance (who likes pumps!?!), I've come to a decision. As of February 25, I will no longer pump any milk for Callum to have during the day. If he chooses to breastfeed during the day, fine. If not? I will be giving him whole cow's milk from a local dairy. I plan to continue breastfeeding at night and offering during the day as long as I have milk and he wants it, but I'm not going to pump anymore. I know his body could handle cow milk now (3 weeks shy of a year), but husband and I agree that if I introduce it now, he may choose it entirely and I want the boy getting that nutritious breastmilk until he's a full 12 months old.
12-18 months:
Everett happily nursed. He started self-weaning around 15 months when his intake of cow milk increased. (He had really refused any large quantity of cow milk until then.) The day I found out I was pregnant with Callum, I had forgotten to nurse Everett upon waking (his only nursing of the day by that point) and he didn't ask. He was done.
Callum? Who knows! I hope he'll continue nursing until closer to 18-24 months, but if he self-weans, I'll go with it.
