If you breastfed for 1yr+...

JEliseS

I think 1 year is my goal. Did you start the weaning process at 10 months, 11 months? The girls take sippy cups but stopped taking a bottle at around 3 months, so I've been breastfeeding since (in addition to solids for a couple months now). I don't mind it since I'm a SAHM and mostly because they don't have teeth yet, lol! But I feel like weaning is going to be SO difficult because I've tried milk in the sippy a couple times and they're not too fond. They will take water in there just fine.

Do you think it gets easier to wean when your LOs start eating more finger foods and feeding themselves? They're still getting the hang of the pincer grasp, not quite there yet.

jalaiaa

I can't say I was ever nervous about weaning but it went a lot easier than I expected. Eli last nursed at 17 months, James at about 16 months. I had said that I would nurse until 2 years or until my boys self-weaned but I was ready by 17 months. By that time they were only nursing once or twice a day anyway. 

 At one year I started nursing only twice and the other times I would offer milk in a bottle or sippy. If they drank it they drank it and if not I didn't worry because they were eating plenty of solids. I'm pretty relaxed about food in general though. I put a meal in front of the boys and if they eat they eat and if not, they don't. I don't do a whole lot of "come on, one more bite" or "you don't like this? I'll make you something else." (I know you weren't talking about food in your post but it kind of translates to weaning).

If they wanted the cow's milk they drank it and if not I put it back in the fridge.

TripMomma

I only pumped for 6 weeks with the triplets. Baby #4 is 19 months now and STILL nursing. I would love to wean him, but he has other plans LOL. I just hope he is ready to give it up at 2, because that is my limit...like it or not young man LOL.

CER+MEL

I started dropping feedings at around 12 months and stopped breastfeeding completely at 15 months. 

Looking back I can see how starting solids back at four months laid the groundwork for weaning.  We started with brown rice cereal about one hour after I breastfed them in the morning (like a breakfast). At around six months, we gave them a jar of first foods or a homemade version about an hour after their 3:30 feeding (like a dinner). Eventually we added the first foods to their rice cereal meal in the morning and then another solid feeding about and hour after their mid-morning breastmilk (like a lunch).

When they turned one, we began considering their three solid feedings their breakfast, lunch, and dinner and dropped the breasmilk one feeding at a time by replacing it with a sippy of organic whole cow's milk. Including a snack like Cheerios with those sippies helped them appreciate the change a little more.  I dropped one feeding every couple of weeks or so. There was no method to that, just what felt right.

A lot of that was c&p'd from my blog.  Here's more on the BF topic if you're interested.

ColleenS629

I'm struggling with a plan, too. I just this week added their third meal. My plan for now is to BF first thing in the morning, offer a solids breakfast about an hour later, BF after their first nap, solids lunch before their second nap, BF when they wake up from their nap, possibly BF again depending on timing, solids dinner around 4pm, BF before bed. This is a pretty big adjustment for me because I was nursing 6-7 times a day up until this week but my LC told me I should start making solids more of a focus. I'll probably do this for a while and then maybe add in a snack or 2. I'm thinking at 1 year I'll probably start to drop feedings and eventually BF first thing in the morning and right before bed. 

MuseumMaven

Honestly, it's kind of been a non-issue for us.  I didn't start solids until 5 months, and we didn't push it much at all.  As the boys started eating more and more solids, they were less interested in nursing.  For quite a while we were nursing before the morning nap, sometimes late in the afternoon, and before bed.  I was able to drop the late afternoon with no trouble.  The morning was easy, too.  I'm just nursing before bed now.

 I went with the "don't offer, don't refuse" method, and it worked great.  I wouldn't offer the feeding, but if the boys wanted to nurse I would go ahead.  I would still nurse them during the day if they wanted it, but they really aren't that interested any more.

As for cups, I started giving them water around 7 months in sippis.  They really didn't start drinking much until 11 months or so, but I always offered.  We started WCM at 12 months.  At first they were not interested at all, but we kept offering.  Now they suddenly love milk.

Try not to stress over it.  For me things just progressed very naturally and without any ordeal.

 

flgator

I BF DS1 for 14 months and DS2 for 16 months.  At 12 months, I started stopping the day time feedings.  I did it slowly and never had any pain stopping.  Then I stopped the night ones and eventually stopped the morning one.  I know many stopped the morning before night, but this way worked for us.  Plus, I was fullest in the morning.  DS2 took a long time to stop the morning one.  He only stopped when we were on vacation. 

We don't give our kids milk to drink (unless they get it in their cereal) so can't help with that.  We only give them water to drink.  I just started giving them water in their sippy cups.  

MrsCali_Bride

We're still nursing 3x per day at 16.5 months. I have a feeling we'll probably be done within the next couple of months based on their attention span during feedings. With my singleton I just started dropping one feeding a day and replacing it with a sippy of milk. One day I just stopped offering and he never cared. Good luck!