Weaning

Knottie1459358632

Anyone else thinking of weaning from breastfeeding around the 6 month mark?! My boy is up allllllll night (horrible sleeper!) and I think a lot has to do with just wanting to comfort nurse. I'm all for comforting my baby but I know he's not hungry every 2 hours and I'm in school and can barely function on no sleep.

psherman42wwsa

I'm in the same situation. My Pedi said oh if he's eating a full feeding he must still need the calories but I'm not too sure about that. I typically breast feed at night because its easier but I may try giving bottles at night to see if it makes a difference. Then maybe start weaning the feeds. I just need to get my butt out of bed to go warm the bottles and then of course I'll have to pump....either way it sucks lol I'm so exhausted. My LO is often wide awake for several hours in the middle of the night....

 I found this website: https://sleepsense.net/ and I think I'm just going to pay and get the advice on there to see if it helps. I feel like I've tried everything and I'm so desperate for sleep... they have to sleep through the night eventually right?....

Knottie1459358632

So I'm sure it's coincidence, but the last two nights we did bottles (formula

Knottie1459358632

Damnit it deleted my message! Anyways we did bottles of formula overnight and he only woke up 3x instead of 6x the last two nights! I feel bad but I'm desperate for sleep also. I have about a month of frozen breast milk to send him to day care with, and I'm hoping to continue morning and evening nursing. Thanks for the website, I'm about to try anything (not that I haven't already ha!)

Perfect Sonnet

I just weaned.  Honestly it is a hard decision to make, and a hard process to go through.  But now that I have gone through the process and she is 100% on formula, I am sooooo much happier. 

I love breastfeeding at the beginning, but, same as with my first, at about the 4 month mark I get so run down and just want my body back.

Good luck!

gagua

I'm shooting for breastfeeding for the first year, but plans always change... There's absolutely nothing wrong with switching to formula. My little guy sleeps all through the night without waking up if his in my bed but now that he got the boot to his crib (still in my room) he gets up once every night. He doesn't eat but wants to be cuddled. That's when I cave and sneak him in my bed.

Could it be the month 4 sleep regression? I've read that they happen at month 4 and again at month 8.

Best of luck to you with what route you take.

NurseRieger

Perfect Sonnet said:

I just weaned.  Honestly it is a hard decision to make, and a hard process to go through.  But now that I have gone through the process and she is 100% on formula, I am sooooo much happier. 

I love breastfeeding at the beginning, but, same as with my first, at about the 4 month mark I get so run down and just want my body back.

Good luck!

This exactly for me. I had to supplement before going back to work because I could only pump twice in 12 hours at best. I kept it up 6 weeks after returning to work and it was a source of stress. As much as I loved nursing him the night nursing was exhausting and after so many bottles he was rejecting the breast except for at night. He also wouldn't take a paci from me until I weaned him. I completely stopped at 4 1/2 months and I miss it but it is a relief and he does sleep longer with a bottle of formula. Weaning for me was a very emotional process and I was never teary through the pregnancy or after giving birth but the last few nursing were hard knowing it was ending. He will be my only baby so I think that made it harder.

gadawgmom

My little stopped sleeping through the night at about the 4 month mark-we are days away from the 6 month mark now. We have tried everything. We were breastfeeding only up until the 5 month mark and thought maybe formula would help and it didn't, then we added rice to the bottle and that didn't help then we started adding more bottles and that didn't help so we started solids with quinoa and that didn't help. All of this to say that nothing helped, we aren't getting anymore sleep now than we were when he stopped sleeping and now I am up and working harder to get my supply back since I would rather him be up all night getting BM than up all night with me warming formula.