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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Moms: Weaning
I am no where near ready to wean but I decided I should read and education myself about it. I know not one thing about weaning. Abe still nurses every two hours or so and all through the night. (remember...no judging!)
Tell me your stories of weaning. What did you do? Did you allow baby to lead? What was your timeline?
Re: Moms: Weaning
What, you don't LOVE pumping?
James weaned somewhere around 7 months from the boob because I was dried up. I never got my supply up that well and pumping was such a nightmare that it encouraged the lack of flow. For me, it was no biggie and James didn't miss it at all. (I missed it emotionally for a while, but not having the stress of making enough milk was not missed.)
With other mom's on my mommy message board, a lot did child led weaning, and some are still nursing past 2 years. For those that chose to stop it before the child did, I think there was a lot of redirection and extra snuggling for kiddo, and cold compresses and grinning & bearing it while the milk production eased down for mommy. Depending on baby's age, at some point the nursing is a lot less about nutrition, and more about comfort and closeness. It's up to you two what the balance is and how long you want it to go.
When we introduced cow milk around 1 year at meal times, we went straight to a sippy cup instead of a bottle. That way there was a distinction between formula/BM in a bottle and milk in a cup, making it easier for us to wean from the bottle. I've heard losing the bottle can be a sticking point for some babies, so I avoided the association with just any beverage at all. That's my only tip in that area.
I'm certainly no doctor, but I'd say as long as Abe's getting all the nutrition he needs elsewhere (food and BM) a bottle/cup of whole milk will be peachy for liquid intake and extra calories/nutrients. I know you know cow's milk is not a 1-to-1 sub for breastmilk, so as long as you've got the general nutrition down on your sweet little porker
I bet the intro would be fine whenever you feel comfortable.
I pretty much stopped pumping right after gaby turned a year. I went down from 3 pumping sessions a day at work to 2 one week and then just one the next week. Then the following week I stopped pumping entirely, Whew!!
I was floored at how quickly Gaby weaned after that. I was expecting to be able to continue morning and night nursing for a while maybe until 15 mos or so, but once she stopped getting the BM bottle during the day it was as if, she just decided that was enough. Within a week she stopped nursing entirely. She transitioned to bottles of WCM and then probably 2 weeks later, daycare stopped giving the bottle and we have just done sippy cups from that point on. It was crazy how grown up she seemed once she stopped taking the bottle.
I was also pleasantly surprised by the fact that I didn't get engorged at all, my supply just seemed to taper off. Our bodies are wonderful things aren't they!
So, every child is different, but I would say that it could happen faster once you drop the pumping than you may expect, at least that's how it was for me.
Good luck once you decide the time is right.
I think Lily will nurse whenever I offer it to her, and I was offering it to her every 2-3 hours until 11 months old, because I thought that was what she wanted (because she was still really fussy). However, she was also hardly eating any solids and my pediatrician told me to cut her down to 4 times a day. So, I put her on a schedule -1st thing in the morning, before the morning nap, after the afternoon nap, and before bed. To my surprise, it was easy-peasy. I think it took a couple of weeks to get there (I did it gradually so I wouldn't explode and so it wouldn't be a shock to Lily). Lily didn't seem to care about losing the sessions. And she started eating more solids.
Around 13 months, she transitioned to one nap so I cut out the mid-morning nursing session associated with it. Now she just gets a snack. Again, she didn't care.
I cut out the before-bed session at 14 months. The main reason I did that was because I wanted to freedom to be able to drink in the evening and to be able to go out without having to wait until after Lily went to bed. I am SO HAPPY about that decision! Again, it was really easy. I started by not nursing her right before bed - I would nurse her in the living room, then read her a story, then put her to bed. Then I just stopped nursing, and she barely noticed (I think she cried for a few minutes the first time).
So, right now I am nursing her first thing in the morning and after her nap at 3:00. I have no plans of cutting out either of these for a while. I am thinking about trying to make it to two years if Lily wants to, because my pediatrician is all gung-ho about it - she said there is still a lot of benefit to nursing past one (she specifically mentioned the DHA in breastmilk). Plus, I love the morning snuggles and the excuse to take a rest in the afternoon! And I think those will be harder to give up - Lily often wakes up really grumpy and nursing helps transition her from sleep to awake - once she is done nursing, she sits up and smiles.
However, I have to take so many meds sometimes I think about weaning, but so far all of my meds have been safe for BFing. And sometimes I think about cutting out the naptime nursing so that I can go out in the afternoon, but so far that opportunity hasn't presented itself enough to make it worth it.
Oh, and when something happens to throw her off (like sickness and travel), I do nurse her more than just twice a day (maybe 4 times? it's not a schedule, just if it seems like it would help her).
As far as whole milk goes, I offer it to her at meals (in a sippy) and she never drinks it. She'll have a few sips if I flavor it, but, she really only drinks water (not even juice). So, I feed her a lot of yogurt and some cheese. Because she only nurses twice a day, I think I need to give her another source of calcium and fat, so I'm glad she loves yogurt.
We started introducing whole milk after 10 months with the okay from our pedi...it was in addition to BM, not in place of, to get him used to it in sippy cups. That way as I got really close to a year and very tired of pumping, we could start dropping bottles and replacing with sippies of milk. So we went from 3 bottles one week, to two bottles and a sippy the next, and then 1 bottle and a sippy the next, and then all sippies just after a year and no bottles of BM. It worked really well, and I was able to completely stop pumping at a year, but continue BF'ing.
We then continued BF'ing morning, right after work, and before bed. I slowly started dropping these sessions based on what he seemed like he could tolerate. So I just wouldn't offer, but if he requested, I would nurse him. I think we dropped the morning one first, then the night, and the after work was the last to go. There were times he was extra nursy like if he was sick, and I'd still nurse him on demand, but like I said I didn't offer. We nursed up until 17 months when I had to do my radioactive iodine - I was ready to wean and needed to medically so it just worked out. The last after-work sesson was the hardest one to let go of, and with this one because we had to stop, I didn't nurse him when asked. I just said "all gone" and distracted him with an activity, a snack, or a cup of milk. He would have kept going if I let him, but the weaning went really well because we did it so gradually, it was a process that really took almost 8 months to complete. So I think it's great that you're thinking about it now and can kind of plug away at it slowly.
Grace weaned at 15 months. She just gradually cut out feedings on her own as she ate more food. Liam is nursing 3-4 times a day. He nurses before his morning nap, before his afternoon nap and before bed and then usually once at night and sometimes he will skip one of the nap time feedings for whatever reason. He is still going strong and very interested in nursing so I do not see him stopping anytime soon! Eventually when he goes to one nap a day one of the day time feeding will be cut out, I am hoping he stops the nightime one but we will see
Anyway I don't have any great advice I am mostly following his lead still at this point.
Oh and he does have sippy cups of milk throughout the day, I don't really keep track of how many ounces but he does fine with it and loves cows milk as well!
Gosh I love you girls. This is FANTASTIC information.
I thought that Abe was an exception in his need/love to nurse but in reading your responses I can see a lot of him in your kids. When I pick him up from school he practically undresses me before I'm out the door. I literally have to hold my shirt up. I'm wondering if he will slow down after I stop pumping like Becca said.
I can't wait to put that effing pump away.
I remember getting soooooo tired of pumping around that same time. Lets have a party when you put the pump away! After work was Marcus' most favorite nursing time...he would be getting in my shirt the minute I picked him up. It really speaks to how special that nursing relationship is and the bond that's there; I always thought that was his chance to reconnect with me after a day apart.
I stopped pumping at a year because I had plenty in the freezer to get us a little beyond (she didn't warm up to WCM until around 15 months). As far as weaning goes....well....at 12 months she started STTN on her own, so I didn't have to go through the night weaning I was prepared for. We were at 3 sessions then. She dropped the nap time session around 14 months, then I did kind of force the AM session because it was 40 mins long....she was basically using me as her coffee :P We were down to just the bedtime session and suddenly last week she started not napping without the boob, so we're back to 2.
My timeline was weaning at 12 months :P
Now I'm hoping for 18. This pregnancy does not seem to be slowing her down at all.