Old Enough To Ask For It - Or It's Not Meth It's Milk

I actually started writing this post about nursing before that damn Time magazine cover came out but that is certainly not going to stop me from posting this even if it now just seems like a response.

Owen is now fourteen months old.  We are still nursing.  It's getting to the point that a lot of people are starting to ask me when I am going to wean.  Friends, family members and even strangers seem to feel that this is an appropriate question.  And they often ask it in the same tone as one might query, "So, when are you going to finally quit smoking?"  or "Hey, do you think maybe it's not such a good idea to have onion rings and a chocolate milkshake for breakfast?"  But cigarettes and fried food have the potential to kill you, (or at least fried food on a daily basis, nothing is wrong with an occasional french fry smoothie.) But breastfeeding past one has the potential to do what?  Let a stranger get a glimpse of my boob?  Take a little money away from the milk industry after their great comeback with that "Got Milk?" campaign?  I think at one point, years ago, I would have been in the "Breastfeeding should stop when they are old enough to ask for it," but the problem with that is if you teach them how to communicate well they are old enough to ask for it really early.  And also it's arbitrary, one child can "ask for it" at eight months, another at fourteen, and maybe some never can. But if there is one thing Owen has learned, it is how to ask to nurse.

Owen doesn't talk much yet, he as a few words like cat, dog, wa-ber  (water) and Daddy. Once he said "more" to ask for extra pie at Thanksgiving and once he said "Tara" while holding a Buddhist statue of Green Tara  which freaked me a little since I had NEVER said Tara but is another post.  He hasn't said "mom" yet, because he's clearly holding out just to piss me off.   He also has a few signs which include "finished" and "hungry" and "thirsty" but his most used is the sign for" nursing" aka "milks" or "milkies." (Feel free to judge me for pluralizing milk if you want, that's probably the real crime.) So I guess he now officially can "ask for it."  And ask for it he does.

He is an addict.  He wakes up from a nap and after I take him, and everything single thing that is in the crib out of it, both stuffed animals and his blanket, he is off and signing that he wants to nurse.  He wants to nurse before he goes to sleep.  He wants to nurse if he falls down or gets scared or sick.  He wants to nurse when I take off my shirt.  In fact, he claps when I take off my shirt which is somewhat of a validating response.

To be clear, I don't always let him nurse.  I am in the process of trying to encourage him to cut back.   I am also in the process of trying to discourage him from trying to "self-serve" in public where he reaches his hand inside me shirt to scoop out my boob and drink.  Sometimes I feel like I am back dating a young teenage boy, who is a little clumsy but VERY enthusiastic about my breasts.  Except the difference of course, is for one it is all about excitement and for the other it is about comfort and well, food.  So what's the big push?  To give him something processed to drink just so I don't offend someone?  At some point, we'll stop either because he goes to preschool and it's impossible to pack a boob in a lunch box, no matter how fancy that lunch box is, or because I'll get pregnant and I promised my husband he could have my boobs to himself for at least a few months before the next baby comes.  I have not put the boobs off limit but my husband does not like to share.  In fact the first time Owen slept through the night, I begged him to "just take a little off the top"  so I would not have to get up and nurse but for some reason he was completely un-cooperative.

But for now Owen really loves to nurse so we're nursing.  At some point we'll stop.  We might need professional help.  I see a reality TV show in the making.. MILK REHAB.  Then again we will probably be able to do it our own.  Because people, it's not meth, it's milk.