2 months: 2 months of slowly weaning at a pace that he was ready for and didnt completely break me
2 week: it has officially been 2 week since Mason has nursed and the process has actually gone much smoother than I expected
26 months: 26 months and 5 days to be exact of breastfeeding. I never expected to make it this long I had a goal of three months and swore I would not go past 1 year. The first 3 months were torture and I didnt think I would make it to my goal then when I reached it I decided to keep going through flu season, then to 6 months. Then 1 year. Once we hit 1 year I realized neither of us were ready to wean so we kept going. I didnt have plans to wean until we lost the second baby, i didnt wean thinking the nursing caused it but because I almost had to cold turkey wean Mason which I wasn't comfortable with but that was almost my only way to treat the miscarriage due to medication. So when God answered my prayers and allowed me to keep nursing and my body naturally miscarried without medication, Dean and I decided it was time to start weaning but at a slower pace cutting out one feeding at a time. This way if when we start trying again we are unfortunately faced with the medication we dont have to worry about weaning Mason at the same time.
We waited at least two weeks everytime we cut out a feeding to give him time to adjust and also to slowly help my body and hormones regulate (because to my surprise my body had a much harder time than Mason did).
-At first we cut out snacking and only nursed at bed/nap and when he woke up, no more comfort or boredom nursing.
- After 2 weeks we decided to try cutting another feed.
-Next we cut out nursing when he woke up this time we only waited a week before cutting out the next feeding.
- overnight nursing came next and Thank God for my husband who really stepped up and made this a much easier transition. Even with Dean's crazy schedule he would sleep in our extra bedroom with Mason keeping him distracted throughout the night. We found that if Dean would show Mason I wasnt in our room (I would hide in the bathroom for a few minutes) Mason would settle down much quicker and only cry for a couple minutes before watching blippi with Daddy until he fell asleep. After a week of this he was used to not nursing at night and could have me comfort him back to bed instead of just Dean.
- after two weeks we then cut the nap nursing session. This one was harder because it meant our nap schedule was not as consistent and some days he skipped his nap all together. The first few days we laid in bed and watched a movie until he fell asleep and gradually he got used to just having me rock him to sleep or laying next to me and falling asleep.
- After one week of not nursing for naptime I had no plans to cut out the night feedings but had to have dental work and couldn't nurse for 24 hours he didnt have to hard of a time so we decided it was time to go for it. 2 weeks ago I planned to keep the night nursing for at least one more month but now I'm so glad with how smoothly it went and how much it has actually bonded Mason and I more.
Here's a glimpse at the first seven days of completely weaning:
Night 1: wasn't bad watched a movie and fussed for about 5 mins
Night 2: watched a movie screamed for 5 minutes
Night 3: rocked him in chair asked for a baby a couple times no screaming or crying
Day 4: rock in chair for nap, rocked in chair for bed fussed for less than one minute
Day 5: rocked to sleep for nap no fussing, rocked to sleep for bed fussed for about thirty seconds and was asleep within 1 minute
Day 6: fell asleep in my arms while standing in line at monster jam, cried for 2 minutes while being rocked then knocked out
Day 7: today he fell asleep for his nap while watching a movie. And at bedtime I sat on the rocking chair and he climbed into my nap and fell asleep no crying, no fussing, no asking for his baba.
We are now 2 weeks into no breastfeeding and it has gone much smoother than I expected. Mason will still ask for it off and on but hasn't nursed at all since we decided it was time to completely wean and hasn't cried for more than 5 minutes throughout the entire process. It's crazy how much weaning him has helped him to grow, he is eating so much more, talking up a storm, and so much more independent. Over the past 2 weeks I have had to have my parents and sister watch him alot and he has not freaked out once, before I couldn't leave for more than an hour without him completely freaking out and being inconsolable. One day we were gone 5 hours and came home to him happy and playing like I had never left. But at the same time he still wants to snuggle in whenever he is tired and ready for bed 💙 I know weaning is different for everyone and for me I knew I couldn't just let him cry it out so Dean and I figured out what would work for him and agreed we didnt want him crying more than 10 mins inconsolably but to my surprise we never even came close to that and he did amazing and was definitely ready.
Something no one warned me about was how crazy my hormones would go from weaning, I got horrible migraines, cried over everything and was incredibly nauseous for about 5 days after we would cut out a feeding. It was challenging but thankfully we did it at our own pace and a pace that was comfortable for Mason as well so it wasnt torture.
