Extended Nursing

I was Skype-ing with my dad the other day so he could see the baby, and I mentioned that my little one has become quite the distracted nurser- she wants to play or sing or wiggle while she is nursing, making it much more difficult to focus on nursing. My dad suggested that meant it would be a great time to wean her.

What?

OK, so let me just put this out there. I love nursing my baby. Love it. It's had it's highs and lows, and sometimes it's awful when she wants to nurse when I'm doing important things like peeing (since she follows me into the bathroom now), but it's been awesome.

Nonetheless, nursing has been great and I feel privileged to be able to do it. And my baby loves it too, even though she is distracted. She still nurses, it's just that now, instead of taking ten minutes to nurse and be done, we nurse in about thirty second intervals, over the course of about 45 minutes, with frequent breaks for crawling, wiggling, or just smiling up at me. The books say that it's a phase...

Suffice to say, we're not weaning anytime soon.

But... When to wean? I have talked with many people about weaning, the right time, and how to go about it. An I've realized that there is no "right" time except when one or both of us is ready. I have talked with people who weaned at 3 months, 9 months, 12, 18 months, up to 3-4 years in age.   I have read the opinions of the AAP and WHO, who recommend 12-24 months, and continued nursing as long as is mutually desirable, thanks to the continued health benefits- both physically and mentally.  When babies are left to wean on their own, they will generally do so between 2.5 and 7 years.  While I can't imagine the idea of nursing a first grader, nursing a toddler is definitely doable.  So... I imagine it will be somewhere between the two :).

Also, this picture is awesome.