Sibling Rivalry

I was discussing breastfeeding the other day with a friend of mine and a vignette from early on came back to me.

T breastfed a lot longer than I had thought I wanted to nurse my babies. He just got so much comfort and calming from nursing... it made such nice mom/baby time, so I let him go on. Then, I got pregnant and I figured he'd wean when I stopped producing milk. He slowed down a lot. Then, when I completely stopped producing, he switched to a token little nurse at bedtime, so I thought he'd wean any day. Then, I was due in a few weeks and he still hadn't stopped. I figured that I couldn't wean him then start feeding his baby brother in a few weeks - talk about creating sibling rivalry.

I had a pretty bad hospital experience delivering T, so because of that and a number of other things, we decided to homebirth B. I found this terrific midwife and all that. Anyway, T was only about 2 and 1/2 and I didn't know where he'd end up during the birth, so I wanted him to be ready. We talked a lot about baby and all.

To prepare for the birth, I showed him lots of lovely photos from Birthdiaries.com. They are really beautiful and graphic enough for him to understand what he might expect. "look, T, you can see the baby's head" T really soaked up the photos, he found them fascinating.

"Ooooh, and look, there is more of the baby's head"

"See how that mommy is shouting, it is ok if mommy shouts".

"And, look, there's the rest of the baby"

"See how the mommy hugs her new baby?"

"And, look, she is nursing the new baby... the baby likes its mommy's milk".

At this time, T stopped... looked at me... raised my shirt, pointed at my breast and stated "MINE".

Oh, and in the end... T slept through his brother's arrival. He came down in the middle of the night and met his baby brother. And, he did share his mommy.

In the end, I let T nurse at bedtime until I weaned B - they weaned simultaneously.