How do you go about finally weaning?

MissLMS · April 2010

Kennedy has pretty much self-weaned herself over the last 3 months or so. We are down to one nursing - first thing in the morning in bed, and then I pump before I go to sleep at night so that she has one bottle of bm, which I mix with cow's milk for the sitter.

My goal was to nurse a year and I'm SO READY to drop that last pumping, which I plan on doing tonight. But, I'm concerned about dropping the last feeding in the morning. Should I just quit cold turkey or nurse her as long as she's interested?

My supply has dropped to the point where I only pump about 3 oz. at a time. I'm sure that when she nurses she isn't getting very much.

c1kaestner · April 2010

If your body is not producing then I would say stop. There is no point trying to fight your body, can cause major frustrations. Your LO might be little extra fussy but a day maybe two and I bet she'll get used to it.

Leelee06 · April 2010

Lydia, I just want to applaud you for nursing for a year! That also goes to others who have done the same.

amandabrooke81 · April 2010

That's awesome that y'all made it to 1 year (oh and all while being a working mom too)!!! You and Kennedy should both be happy

Lydia, do you feed her bottles yourself (like on weekends during the day or at nighttimes)? If she's comfortable with you feeding her a bottle, why don't you just try it one morning and see. I'm going to guess she'll be okay since she's already begun to self-wean.

And while every mother has their own parenting style, I decided to wean M gently. There's a lot of emotions involved for both parties so you need to do whatever you both feel comfortable with. But some things to help them continue to self-wean are:

* Feeding her a bottle yourself or let your DS try to feed her for the morning feeding.

* In the mornings when you hold/feed/care for her, try to keep your chest covered so she's not reminded of the boob.

* Increase her solids at breakfast so she'll feel full.

* Try varying up your morning routine to see if change in another area might "distract" her from the weaning.

Mason surprisingly didn't have much issue with weaning. I do occasionally have him try to pull down my shirt...but I think bottlefed babies probably do this too (???) I remember that I began to "dry up" so he actually became more "frustrated" nursing (not that it was any great distress though) and preferred the bottle.

And while I definitely don't know this from experience (we began @ 9mos, finished up somewhere around 10.5), I heard that it's the toddlers- 2 and 3 yr olds- who have the toughest time weaning anyway. At one year, Kennedy will likely be a pro!

amandabrooke81 · April 2010

PS I actually miss nursing...and can re-lactate, but there's no way in (a very hot place) I'll even try now that M bites down on anything you stick in his mouth...with 8 sharp puppy teeth!

sdkrlm · April 2010

Way to go mama!

when we weaned - we dropped the morning session before the evening session. Robert just got her up and took her for breakfast. (We had already weaned off bottles/BM by this time ~ 13 months) and she had no issues. I stayed sort of out of sight in the mornings until after she ate her breakfast.

Then about 2 weeks later, we weaned completely from the night nurse session. I got the stomach bug and one night when I was half dead, Robert just put her to bed. He gave her a sippy of milk before bed. Avery has always been a very good sleeper so I think at that time, she was more excited about the prospect of night night versus nursing.

She never cried over it at all.

loyo03 · April 2010

She really self weaned herself before I was ready. My supply dropped and she became so busy with the world around her that it was pretty much a struggle to nurse. She didn't seem to miss it one bit.

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