How long does it take to stop BF?

[poppy]

I want to stop but I am afraid of my breasts getting too hard. Had that happen three days after delivery, were like rocks and couldn't even sleep at night. Nurse told me to wear a sports bra and to put ice on it.
How long does it take before the milk stops flowing? Also, when will these gigantic breasts shrink down to normal size? Do they go down to normal size? My DS is my first baby.

TIA!

[kijip]

How old is baby? How long it takes for all our milk to go away depends on how much milk you have and how well established your supply is. Everyone will have a slightly different experience. A tiny bit of hand expression or pumping to ease the pain of engorgement, as can cabbage. I had horrible engorgement for a couple days with F when my milk came in.

[poppy]

My DS is 6.5 mths old. I never had that much--I've been on fenugreek for most of my nursing days. I'd say 2 to 4 ounces per session. I've slowly started cutting back and now I pump about 4 or 5 times a day, rather than 8 or more. Thanks!

[lizajane]

as katie said, it really depends on how old your baby is and how often you are nursing. i would suggest weaning slowly but going down one nursing session every few days. i did it in months, but it sounds like you are in a hurry. i mean, replace a nursing session with a bottle. you don't want to pump instead because then you are telling your body that you need that milk so you will keep making it.

if you can tell us more about your current situation, i am sure we can help!

for me, i quit nursing schuyler at 14 months when i was pregnant with dylan. at 12 months, we went from 3x per day to 2. at 13 months from 2x to 1. and then none at 14 months. i never had an engorgement or pain. and it took schuyler about 3 days to get over it.

dylan was 16.5 months. we didn't have any real schedule, other than morning and before bedtime. but i think i went down weekly? i don't remember! i was so tired!! he was pretty mad. i remember feeling a little bit more than i did with schuyler. but i don't remember any real pain.

[lizajane]

My DS is 6.5 mths old. I never had that much--I've been on fenugreek for most of my nursing days. I'd say 2 to 4 ounces per session. I've slowly started cutting back and now I pump about 4 or 5 times a day, rather than 8 or more. Thanks!

sorry! i was replying as you were typing!

just stop taking fenugreek. and only pump when you are feel uncomfortable, and then only until you feel comfortable again.

[C99]

Yes, they shrink up into flat, floppy pancakes! ;-) I recently weaned my 22-month-old, so it was a more gradual process and I was no longer his sole source of nutrition, as is probably not the case with you and your 6-month-old. If your child takes a bottle and is used to some formula, I think you can gradually decrease the amount you pump/nurse and gradually increase the amount of formula s/he receives in each bottle. I'd expect the process to take about a month. If you try to wean too fast, you'll get mastitis. At least I did when I got pregnant with DS2 while I was still nursing DD *a lot*.

[AnnieW625]

I weaned my daughter at a week shy of 4 months. I didn't produce much milk to begin with (I had a hospital grade pump for three months, and then bought a hand Avent pump and pumped the same amount) so I would've had to pump three times a day at work for at least 30 minutes each time to make one bottle so I just said I'd done all I could do. I never tried fenugreek because I was afraid of stinking, but drank beer, and oatmeal and ate other breast feeding friendly foods and nothing worked.

I started by weaning a feeding a week, and I weaned backwards in case I wanted to feed her in the morning before I went to work. So the first week (I think I started on a Friday) I weaned her 5 or 7 pm evening feeding (she was already sleeping from 9 or 10 pm till 4 or 5 am with a bottle of formula or breast milk; if I was lucky to get one produced during the day (we were supplementing with formula bottle at night). Then the next week I weaned her off the mid afternoon feeding. Then the next week I weaned her off the noon feeding, and then finally the morning feeding. It took four or five weeks. By the time she was getting two formula bottles in a row she'd sleep till at least 5:30 am.

My breasts were still hard as rocks for the weekend after I finished feeding. It was the only time I just wanted to lay in bed, relax, and have little or nothing to do with DH or the baby because it was painful. I was very thankful DH was supportive. It was so hard not to try and pump! I made sure I had her weaned a week before I went back to work so I wouldn't be leaking a lot (which I didn't but didn't want to chance it).

[Swimfreak78]

My DS is 6.5 mths old. I never had that much--I've been on fenugreek for most of my nursing days. I'd say 2 to 4 ounces per session. I've slowly started cutting back and now I pump about 4 or 5 times a day, rather than 8 or more. Thanks!

I'm hoping that you have slowed down on the fenugreek. When I weaned I slowly cut the number of nursing sessions and each time I got ready to drop one I cut 2-3 minutes of pump time.

[poppy]

Thank you! I stopped fenugreek a while ago. I am trying to slowly wean the baby off my breast milk. I was exclusively pumping which is really hard and I was waiting for him to start eating solids at 6 mths before putting him on formula. I wasn't sure how long it would take, but a month sounds good. I'd def. rather do it slowly... I am afraid of getting hard breasts--that was pretty scary!