Demanding Feedings vs. On-Demand Feeding

From the day I began nursing BBZ, it has been on demand. I have never set a schedule or deterred him from nursing even if he ate 30 minutes before showing he wanted to again. This has been our routine for the past year. So last week I noticed that BBZ had become extremely demanding about eating. He points at the spot on our couch where we most often nurse and cries and wiggles and does everything he can think of to get me to understand that he wants to nurse...NOW! So I thought maybe he was going through something and I was (in my head) writing a post for my LLL yahoo group to see if any other moms of 1-year-olds experienced this change as soon as they turned a year. While I was too busy to actually type that post, I figured it out. As soon as BBZ turned 1 year, I decided (almost unconsciously) that I would stop bringing him to me for feedings and would only feed him when he showed me he wanted to. As I said earlier, I have always fed him on demand, and would even bring him to me to nurse before he actually asked to help relieve me and because I knew if I did he wouldn't fuss for it. Little did I know that when I decided to no longer do this, he would learn very quickly how to let me know he is ready! How funny that I was so ready to blame him for making this strange transformation as soon as he turned 1, when it was me who made this change. It's amazing what our minds do without us even realizing. Now that I realize this, I am a bit more willing to listen to his demands and also a little quicker to meet his nursing needs so he doesn't get so mad. I'm sure some of it is his impatience, but I really did a cold turkey change with the way I approached this new nursing-a-toddler role I have taken on. If anyone asked me a year ago if I would nurse past a year, I would have said no way...but here I am! Never say never!