Weaning from breast to bottle/food

stacylynnn

Hi mamas. My son is 14 months old and I am partially weaned to morning and evening feedings only. I fear that I may have to wean completely to get my period to come back, as we are trying to conceive. Due to my age, we feel that we don't have time to let him self wean even though that is what I really wanted to do. While I am motivated to wean him because I want to have the opportunity for a second healthy pregnancy, I am really really struggling with weaning him. It makes me so sad. Instinctively I feel like I am depriving him of something that he needs/wants. It is soooo hard to say no when he asks for milk. It is especially hard on the weekends when he is having late afternoon fussiness and doesn't really want food or a bottle or a nap but just seems to want to nurse and be soothed. I feel like I need some other way to soothe him. If anyone who has been through this has any tips they would be greatly appreciated.

Mack2342

I have no real advice for you but will share my experience.  I stopped nursing cold turkey when my son was 7 months old for the same reason.   I made decision when his last nursing session would be so when that arrived I told him this is it.   He took bottle already while at daycare.  He reached for boobs for a few days and I just told him no that I would make him a bottle.   Probably because he was younger it didn't affect him as hard.   He also uses a binkie to soothe self so that may have helped.  He has been fine and getting what he needs nutritionally from formula and food.  He is now one and I'm trying to ween him from the bottle.  Just had is one year wellness exam and Doctor told me to go cold turkey with the bottles too.  Im not quite ready to do that yet.  he only gets a bottle at night as he still wakes once and occasionally before a nap.

I thought about slowly weening when I stopped nursing so it wouldn't be painful for my boobs but I didn't want to take the time.  I'm 41 and we want another baby and sibling for my son so I said cold turkey is the way.  I was in pain for two weeks but then everything returned to normal

klirwin82

I will say that the hormones made me VERY emotional about weaning. I thought what if this is it, what if I don't have another, we're giving up this special bond etc. I tried weaning once, freaked out with the same thoughts you're having, and went back to BFing. Tried again 2 weeks later and after those first few days when we stopped (basically cold turkey) I was completely fine emotionally and my son could not have cared less. It's tough to get over that hormonal change but once I weaned all those guilty feelings went away.