anyone w experience on weaning

[USAFeyez06]

Hello ladies. My little one is almost nine and a half months old now. We have battled multiple food sensitivities and other fun things, but am happy to report that almost all sensitivities are cleared up now!!! ... but I'm exhausted and ready to look into completely weaning around her first birthday.

DD would not take a bottle, sippy cup, or any other methods of feeding until very recently. I have gotten her to take a sippy cup (most of the time, but not when tired, before naps, or before bed).

I have finally gotten her comfortable taking a sippy cup... but I'm a little worried about the future here. I have very recently started supplementing her a couple times (during the day) with Neocate (still don't want to give her dairy or any other harsh proteins directly, which she has tolerated very well and even likes. :hugegrin: However, she is quite attached to me and very attached to nursing. She has done better than I thought transitioning to the cup during the day, but I have no idea on how to go about nap and bedtime weaning!!!

My husband has successfully put her to sleep by walking her around a little bit for bed and naps (without me nursing prior) occassionally if I am out or something. She will cry for the first couple minutes, but that's short lived and she will fall asleep fine. While this will be a fine way to wean... my husband cannot be here to put her down for naps during the day and on the nights that he occassionally has to work extra late. I have gotten her to sleep by rocking her or walking her around, but never without breastfeeding her first.

Basically, I'm looking for a little bit of encouragement or advice in the department. I am in no rush to completely wean her and in fact plan to keep up what I am doing (she gets about 2 sippy cups a day and breastfeeds about 5-7 times a day currently) until she is about a year. But, I just want to gather information now and be prepared for when I am ready (I just can't completely let go of our breastfeeding relationship right now... I love it too much!!! And these 2 cups a day is totally working for both us... we're both happy!)

I am also confused about weaning completely... I understand how to wean and have read much about it. I plan to take the slow (obviously) route and sort of take the "take away one feeding a week" thing, but how do you wean a last feed? Say you get down to one feeding (at night) a day... how do you stop then without getting too full? Do you have to cut your nursing sessions shorter and shorter or something?

Anyone have any helpful hints or advice? Am I just being paranoid here?

[jorobaker]

I was in the same situation you were. Infact with ds1 I was dairy free for 13 months. All I can offer is what we did. I cut out one feeding every 2 weeks until I was down to just before bed. The bed time feeding was tricky for us. He ended up weening himself from that, with some encouragment from us. We simply cuddled on the couch after a nice hot bath before bed. It took about 2 months of this before we were able to have bath and put him to bed awake.
GOOD LUCK!

[threefunboys]

I'm not sure I can be a ton of help (I'm pretty much in the same boat), but at 9 months, I too was worried about giving up nursing because my DS was so attached to it. Now, at 11 months, he has started to become less emotionally attached. He still nurses for comfort sometimes, but not like before. You may be surprised how much difference 3 months makes. I can now put him to bed without having to nurse him to sleep. I started with naps. I would nurse him, then wake him a tiny bit before putting him in his bed. It also took a bit of letting him fuss to sleep (very rarely does he cry hard more more than a minute) but now he'll go to sleep pretty well, and he has even been sleeping through the night more consistently. And honestly, it seemed like this day would never come. I haven't weaned him yet, but plan to get serious about it in a month or so.

Like you said--it's a gradual process. You asked if you'r ebeing paranoid--I'd have to say no, but you may be overanalyzing the situation. Don't try to figure it all out at once. Take it as it comes, a day at a time, and look more to your baby and yourself for answers than to books or websites. If you listen to her, she'll tell you what she needs. I've found that you can read a ton of stuff about parenting, but none of it really seems to fit. When I get off the computer and just do what I feel is right, I'm much more comfortable and natural about things, much less stressed or anxious.

As for milk production, I'm not quite there yet. As you start to nurse less and less, you'll make less milk, but it's gradual enough that you won't be super uncomfortable. With my first two kids, when I weaned them I didn't get engorged at all. I would think that by the time you are down to one feeding a day your milk supply will be low enough that you won't get super engorged like you did at first. And if you do get full, it will probalby only last a day or two. But everyone's different. I wouldn't worry too much about that now, though. Cross that bridge when you come to it. :) Enjoy where you are right now.

Hope this helps. I'm sure I'll be around in the next month or so with more questions/theories. :)