Weaning Winning!

About two weeks ago, I decided that I was done breastfeeding and I was ready to stop. Up until that point, for the most part, MoMo was strictly breastfed for six months. When we started formula at about six months, I had to ease her into her new meal. She hated the taste and she could tell the difference between what was in the bottle and what she got from me. I tried mixing her formula with my milk, and that worked. Eventually, she started taking just the formula on its own.

When she turned seven months, she was on formula during the day,  some breast milk when she was fussy and breast milk at night. It would have been formula all around, but I was still trying to enjoy my sleep at night. When you breastfeed, it is so convenient to not have to wake up in the middle of the night to prepare food for the baby. We both lay in bed and she feeds, and most times I'm sleeping. Thankfully, MoMo has never used me as a pacifier. When she's done feeding, that's it. She stops and continues sleeping.

Well two weeks ago, I made the decision to stop feeding at night as well, and just deal with waking up at night to bottle feed her. I was nervous about the decision. Nervous not just because I knew my night sleep would now be interrupted, but because I had heard and read stories about weaning babies abruptly and what it does to not only the baby but the mother. For the baby, she goes through separation anxiety with her mother's breast and for the mother, it's a painful process to stop. The mother's body gets used to producing milk, so when she stops, for a couple of days, the body will still produce the milk but since the baby is not taking it, the breast becomes swollen and hard, and it's uncomfortable for the mother. Eventually, the mother's body gets the memo and things go back to normal. This takes about 3 days to a week. I totally did not want to deal with all that, but if that's what I had to go through to stop, then I was ready.

Thankfully, I didn't have to deal with any issues when I stopped! MoMo carried on, and so did I, without any pain or swollen breasts. I figured I didn't have to go through the whole pain maybe because I had already reduced feeding to night time only. My body must have already started producing less. Either way, for what ever the reason, I am thankful! This went absolutely great, nothing like I imagined, so YAY!!! MoMo did so so good and I'm so proud of my grown baby, not once has she even cried for my breasts!

Feeding at night is not that bad either. In order to avoid getting up and going to the kitchen, I have Mo's warmer, and formula on my nightstand. The warmer holds two bottles at a time, so I put two bottles with just water in it. I hate the idea of her formula made and just sitting. When she gets up at night, I remove an already warm bottle from the warmer, add the formula, feed her, and we both go right back to sleep. Mo gets up like clockwork these days too. I feed her at about 10pm right before she goes to sleep and she's up between 2-3a.m for her first feeding and between 6-7a.m for her second feeding. Just great!

Winning!!!

Source - Google Images