WEANING thread...Come and share your experiences and offer support.

[Muriel - Elisa's mama]

hi alessa - sorry no advice I just finished with BF and elisa does not yet have any teeth, so..... cannot be of great help! sorry!

well here thansk to all your nice advices, weaning is now finished and teh pain went away after 4-5 days! so i am looking at my boobs and di not decide yet if i find them saggy or not!! well, sure still not fitting in my old bras but sure the size is slowly decreasing!! so may be i see a difference on my weight balance soon??? i know.. just dreaming...

so still drinking sage & pepermint tea just in case! i start to like it also!!

for the rest elisa was sick for the last 3 days, pucking, diareha and other joys.. may be the first teeth or a good stomach flue  so she actually did not want to sleep on any thing else than me (day & night!! ) with her head on my boobs so i actually could enjoy her like when BFing in a stange kind of way!! well now she seems better and went back to herself it seems having her own indepedant napping time in her crib now! 

so i am happy weaning did not hurt much longer! and many thanks again for the nice help and support! sure i will miss my BFing moments but i can see they will be replaced by new experiences!!

[NiknLily]

Hi
DD is 19months and only has bf before bedtime and to be honest rarely takes very much at all, plus she has started to mess about, doesn't want to be cradled, wants to kneel in front of me and swop from side to side, its supposed to be part of her wind down, a close and relaxing time, but its just not like that any more.  Plus I feel weird having her kneel in front, just feels wrong iykwim.  So I'm thinking it may be time to wean completely.  Just wanted some advise on how best to handle her, what to do instead, was thinking a warm milk sippy she can drink while I read her stories. I'm just a little worried that it may cause some form of SA, don't want her to feel like I'm pushing her away or being cruel, denying something she still wants.  Feel fairly sure I won't have too much trouble with engorging etc as my boobs are as small as they ever where and very saggy and she really doesn't take much at all.  Not sure what advice I want really, just any wise words, tips would be greatly appreciated 

[Erin (redstarfalling)]

That's how it happened with my first.  We were down to the bedtime feed and she started just messing around.  I was pregnant, so I think my supply had really diminished too.  We didn't bother with a sippy of milk - didn't want to start that habit and then worry later about having to brush teeth afterwards, etc.  I just did a snuggle and a song instead of the breastfeed and put her down like usual.

[NiknLily]

Thanks, I know its not strictly a weaning thing but should she still be having milk then as I don't give any other milk to drink, she has it on her cereal most days and gets plenty of dairy, so do I need to worry?

[Erin (redstarfalling)]

As long as she's getting a balanced diet and enough fluid too, with calcium in some form, then it should be fine - there are plenty of kids who don't drink cow's milk. It's just an easier form of protein and calcium and vit D for many families.

[NiknLily]

Thanks, well I didn't do a feed tonight and she was fine about it, didn't seem to notice.  I'm wondering if tomorrow might be when she thinks, 'hang on, whats going on here then?' hope not but what will be will be 

[heidiruthie]

hello! i hope this is the right place to post this! i feel kinda dumb not knowing the answer to this, but how exactly do i go about weaning my almost 12mo son? he still has 3 bfs per day (7am, 3pm & 7:30pm) i'd sort of like to start with consolidating the last 2 feeds into one and say feed him at 5:00pm. the only problem is, he still really wants to nurse at 3:00 yesterday i gave him a little bit of milk in a sippy, which he normally loves, but he knew something was up and grabbed at my shirt! i finally gave in and he nursed for a long time.

i suppose i want to wean because i haven't got my period yet and dh and i would like to ttc soon. also, i don't have a breast pump, so i've felt slightly "chained" for the past year and would really enjoy a bit more freedom, iykwim. i hope that doesn't sound cruel, i do love nursing and know i will miss it when ds is finished, but its been a long year!

so does anyone have any hints for how i could combine the 3pm and 7.30pm feeds into one 5pm feed?

thanks!
-heidi

[Aly Mac]

Heidi, how are you going? I don't think you can really combine a feed, its more of you miss a feed, with it being replaced with something else. What I did/do is I gave a sippy of milk but in the high chair. this is after she wakes up from her nap, lots of cuddles, but not in the normal nursing chair, usually while standing and we go and look outside get some fresh air.  The in the high chair for some milk.  After she's used to that I do a sippy of milk on my lap so she still gets cuddles.  I guess the main thing to start with is to still give the contact without bf, with distraction.  do I make sense....

in saying all that, I have a problem too though...I gave up the mid morn bf a month or so ago, no probs ( as per my above!), and this week I have given up the mid afternoon.  I don't know if it's just a coincidence but she is really fussy for her pm nap and when I try to console her she really wants to nurse.  Not from hunger I don't think, but she likes the comfort.  anyone else find this?  I know I should just find antoher way to calm her for her nap, but at the same time I wondering whether she is missing the afternoon feed.  she still gets first and last thing feeds.

any thoughts anyone??

[Erin (redstarfalling)]

Had you been nursing her before the nap?  You could always do some extra cuddles, story, song...  Or some people give a bit of water or milk at that time, if you suspect hunger...

[Aly Mac]

that's the thing Erin, I had been nursing after that nap.  it's like she knows!!!!!!

With weaning I was kind of doing one at a time, but is that the best way? or just keep with the 3 and when she refuses the lot finish then? i'm happy to keep the first thing and last thing feed.  But if she's going to get this upset, i'd rather keep it - it's not fair on her ykwim?  I feel like she will want to nurse forever she loves it so much!!

[SiestaNoMore]

Ahhh.... just weaned my boy over a week ago (1 day short of 23 months) and am still kind of sad about it (so is he  ).
We tried to drop a feed - we were still nursing 3x/day - morning/nap/bedtime but couldn't seem to drop any.

We finally just went cold turkey. It has been way harder on me than him though - he is okay with the extra cuddles but still shyly asks to bf at least twice a day. Hope it stops soon - it just makes me so sad (he accepts the explanation there is no milk in them anymore so I'm the one with the hangup!!!).
Yaaaaa - for me though - today was the first day I wasn't sore in the chest. Think I'll finally sleep good tonight without sleeping with "rocks".
Don't know if it normally takes 9 days before boobs start to feel normal again? (Who am I kidding - these boobs are are not "normal" - they seem quite a bit saggier than they were 2 years ago - lol!)

I know so many who were able to drop to 1 BF/day before weaning. But we could never get to that. It was cold turkey for us or 3x/day.
It is such a comfort thing for him though - now he wants his hand down my shirt during bedtime story. 

[SiestaNoMore]

Over 3 weeks since my we've finished nursing now. Wow - did not expect that I would miss it so much!

My heart was breaking as to this day DS still asks to nurse a couple times a day. Or at least I thought he was asking! Yesterday I finally thought - "What is the harm- I'm sure there is no milk left" so when he "asked" - I said "Sure" and offered it to see what he'd do. He laughed and laughed and told me there is no milk in them anymore. Didn't even try to latch - just pulled my shirt back down and thought I was funny!

Phew - now I can stop feeling so bad! Apparently it is just a big topic of conversation for him still! For such a champion nurser the weaning for us went so much smoother and easier for him than I imagined.

On an even happier note - I was worried I would miss all that cuddle time with DS. But he is even cuddlier now and DH is so happy with all the extra cuddles he is getting too (apparently I was hogging all the cuddles with all the BF we did )

[Erin (redstarfalling)]

That's so sweet!  I'm glad you're starting to feel better about it, and he's clearly adjusted well!

[Aly Mac]

That's so encouraging Siestanomore.  L just loves to bf, so cutting out the two daytime ones, esp the afternoon one, has been hard on her (and me) esp with tiredness and teething.  So much easier with dh home though, as he is handling the naps and after if she show signs of wanting me..  so going well I think 

[Hannah's Mom]

YEAH!!! THANKS, SiestaNoMore!!!  You've given me some hope!  I got on here to ask for ideas of how to cut out the constant "na-na!!!" cries.  Cuddles and jumping to breakfast just haven't been enough! 

I debated just going cold turkey when trying to figure out how to drop down from 3x/day but then things worked out to drop the morning one while we were traveling.  HOWEVER, that was at the beginning of Nov, and she STILL begs for her morning nurse for probably an average of TWENTY MINUTES EVERY MORNING. AAAAAKKKK!!!  Since we're ttc'n, hubby's just started taking her at night so that we can more easily cut out the night-time nursing.  The first two nights were screams galore, but tonight she shocked me.  I usually disappear around bedtime, but this time I handed her a sippy of milk (yes, we're being bad and not brushing her teeth afterward for now) and gave her a kiss as her daddy took her to bed and she just smiled and went with him!  Ha! 

She consistently has to be forced--yes forced!--off the breast.  The other day I was watching TV (which I rarely do) and just let her keep nursing so I could finish the show, and another show later I realized she'd been nursing for over an hour!  She's still getting plenty of milk (although not necessarily that whole hour of course!).  Even when she's nursed on both sides, I can't really tell her that the milk's all gone, though, because she KNOWS that if she switches sides again there will be more there!  I do love nursing.  I hate to stop completely--and wouldn't if we weren't ttc'n.  She makes me laugh:  Whenever I tell her it's time for bed as she's nursing, she shakes her little head and points at my breast. "No it's not, I'm nursing!"