Weaning question

[ett]

I am in the process of weaning DS. He is down to 2 BF's a day (first thing in the morning and then before bedtime). I am planning on dropping another feeding soon and was struggling with whether to drop the morning or evening feeding. I've always thought that the evening one would be the last to go, but now I'm not so sure anymore. He is very excited about both feedings, which is why I'm struggling.

This whole weaning thing is making me quite sad as I've really grown to love BFing. We've gone past my goal of 1 year and this is also with me pumping twice a day at work.

Any suggestions on whether to drop the morning or evening feeding first would be appreciated. What has worked for those who have already weaned?

TIA!

[sntm]

We haven't weaned (and aren't planning to anytime soon), so I can't advise which one to drop, but just wanted to remind you that if you aren't ready to drop those last two feedings, there's no reason you need to. He'll continue to benefit from the nutritional and immunologic qualities of the milk and the cuddle time it allows. And it is a nice way to reconnect before and after work. If you are on the fence, you could always hold the status quo for a while longer, and if you changed your mind later, could push the weaning issue then.

Either way, congrats on over a year of successful breastfeeding!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
shannon
not-even-pregnant-yet-overachiever
trying-to-conceive :)
PREGNANT! EDD 6/9/03
mama to Jack 6/6/03
http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_gold_12m.gif[/img][/url]
Breastfeeding 15 months and counting

[psophia17]

I haven't weaned yet, but when I do, the morning feeding will be dropped. Sometimes DS just doesn't seem interested in it, so we will skip it and go right to a solid breaktast. Other times he just wants to suck, and forget solids entirely. In your position, I would probably stop pumping at work and then keep up with the morning/bedtime feedings a bit longer, dropping the morning one after maybe a month or so.

If you don't want to stop yet, though, I would suggest not stopping. As long as you love it and DS loves it, why stop? It'll happen eventually anyhow, and if you stop pumping at work, it'll happen sooner rather than later.

Good Luck,
Petra

DS - Nathan, 12/29/03

[COElizabeth]

I agree that if you don't really want to wean now, it doesn't sound like there is a reason to, but when you do, I think it's easier to drop the feeding when you are most likely to have help from your DH or someone else. When I dropped the nighttime feeding, I had DH put James to bed for a few days, and it went pretty smoothly. We gave up the morning session later, though sometimes on weekends James skipped that, too, if he got up with Daddy and I slept in.

Elizabeth, Mom to James, 9-20-02
EDD #2, 10-30-04

[lizajane]

i agree with others that if you don't want to stop, or if you don't have as specific reason to stop, then don't! we can support you through extended BFing. (well, ok, everyone else can... since i weaned at 14 months.)

i choose to wean at 14 months because i was 4 weeks pregnant. (funny thing is that i was weaning to GET pregnant and then found out i already was pregnant right before my 14 month goal!) i dropped the middle of the day first, then the evening, then the morning last. i did this over 2 months.

i choose the evening over the morning for the second drop because then i was "finished" for the day. DH could totally take over when he got home with dinner, bath and bed. and now that is "his" thing, or his time. i was super stressed this spring and really needed to have some "me time" in the evenings.

in contrast, the morning feeding was my favorite. when schuyler woke up, i would drag him into my bed and snoodle him and nurse him for the next 20 minutes. i would usually close my eyes and get a little extra rest and he was all warm and yummy and really into nursing then. i was really sad to let it go, but i was tiiiiiiiired from being pregnant and couldn't keep up my water intake to keep making his milk and "feed" the new babe. so i dropped it right at 14 months in the hopes that it would be easier on him than waiting until he was even more aware that i was taking it away from him. he was upset for 2 mornings. the first one, he cried. the second one, he was a little confused. but the third morning, he was a-ok with his sippy of milk.

[kaitlinsmommy]

I dropped the before bed feeding before the morning one. I thought it would be hard but it wasn't. She was 18 months and seemed content (after a couple nights) to just read books & cuddle before bed. For us, the naptime one was the last to go (a couple weeks ago) and she hasn't napped since.

I read a lot about weaning and felt that distraction and substitution worked equally well. It does feel difficult when you are going through it so I hope your transition goes well.