Breastfeeding Still and TMI

Desi-boo is now over 16 months old and we are still breastfeeding. He nurses several times during the day still and during the night we are still co-sleeping and nursing. I will put him to bed in his crib (sometimes asleep and sometimes awake still) and then around 3 or 4 he normally wakes up crying and I bring him into my bed nurse him back to sleep and then he stays in my bed til he wakes up, normally around 10 or 11. (Just depending on when he goes to bed, he typically sleeps 12 hours a night) For awhile he was sleeping through the night from bedtime til about 8 or 9, then he started getting in 4 teeth. At the same time. Two of those have finally popped through, but there are still two of them lingering just below the surface. I'm hoping that he will start sleeping all night again after they pop through. My pediatrician told me that I can give him medicine every night to help with the pain of teething, but I don't feel comfortable drugging up my baby every single night just to stop him from waking up in the middle of the night.
For me, one of the best things about breastfeeding has been no periods. I know for a lot of people this isn't always the case, some people get them back about 6 weeks postpartum, but for me it has been 16 glorious months,16 months + the 9 months of pregnancy. My last period started December 25th, 2011. Well, last one until yesterday. :( It has been nice having over 2 years with no period, I have been much happier, I am nicer, and well, it is just great not have to do deal with those things. I think it's pretty good timing though. One of our new friends recently asked me if we are some of those weird people that breastfeed until their kid is 2 or 3. Not quite, but almost. I have to have Desi weaned by the end of April  and I have mixed feelings about it. I think he will do okay, I decided a couple of days ago to start the process so I was giving him sippy cups of milk whenever I could and did he pretty good as long as it was chocolate milk or strawberry milk. I decided he did pretty well, but I'm not quite ready yet, so I will keep breastfeeding for now as long as he wants and am not going to push the sippy cup. But we have to him weaned by the end of April, so regardless it will happen by then, just not yet. It's so Steve and I can go on a trip we have been wanting to go on since before we were married, and were supposed to go on a couple of weeks after we married. We have now been married for 6 years, so this has been a long time coming. And there is no way I am going to pump during it. We are going to be gone for 17 days and I can't pump enough before we go to feed Desi for that long, and I also don't want to pump while we are on vacation snorkeling in the Mediterranean, going to the Italian Opera, seeing the oldest freestanding ruins on earth, staying in little bed and breakfasts in the countryside, and going to lots of cool churches. Just not my idea of a fun vacation listening to the sound of the pump and saying sorry honey, can't go yet, gotta pump. Oh and we are just going to have one backpack each, where would that thing fit!?
I am so excited to go Malta, not as excited about weaning, and not as excited about periods again, but kind of am, because I am ovulating again and can get pregnant again, and I am just about ready for another baby!

Teething

Desi-boo is teething. I am so not ready for this yet. He is only 4 1/2 months old! And it may take a while before they pop out, but who knows. Simon didn't get his first tooth until he was over a year-old, which I really enjoyed since I breastfed him til he was over a year old and I didn't have to deal with the whole nursing and teeth thing. One of the joys of Desi teething is that he has been nursing almost non-stop around the clock for the past couple of days. That is great if I have nothing to do, but not-so-great if I want to go run errands, or go on a date alone with my husband, or go to work. Yep, none of those things are happening this week. Instead, I am sitting on the couch nursing this baby constantly and showering very late in the day while baby screams in the bouncy seat just so I can be clean. Oh, what, I forgot to mention didn't I... That's right, if he isn't nursing he wants to be held. And not just anyone will do. Only mom will do. Hooray! (Note the many layers of sarcasm in this post.)
Last night Steve was holding Desmond while I was stuffing diaper inserts into diapers so Steve wouldn't have to deal with it while I was at work- the diapers would be all ready for him. The whole time Steve was holding Desi, he was rocking, bouncing, shhhing, swaying, patting, etc., and Desi just sat there screaming and staring at me, he would track me around the room, staring into my soul and crying. It was a very painful three minutes, and heartbreaking.
Don't get me wrong, I love holding my baby, and cuddling him, and nursing him, but I also love getting other things done too, especially when I am actually in the mood for doing other things like picking up the living room and cooking meals for my family for Valentine's Day. Meals like our breakfast (and by breakfast I mean lunch, it was at 1 that we ate our bacon, little Kari's little-a eggs, pigs in a blanket, and fruit) this morning with it's little heart-shaped pieces of fruit, and the dinner I want to make tonight for my husband with little heart-shaped roasted potatoes. It's gonna be soo cute, if it actually happens. Which at this rate, is probably not going to happen.
But anyways, teething- yikes. When he isn't nursing he is chomping on whatever he can get his hands onto and get into his mouth. And it doesn't feel like front teeth are coming in, its all jaggedy further back, like canines and molars are starting to come in. Ouch, poor little baby.