I’ve gotten a lot of questions about breastfeeding Theo and how I weaned him, so I thought I’d put together a quick post for you guys. It’s not something that I’ve talked about a whole lot on the blog or my Instagram. Theo is my first baby and I’m by no means a breastfeeding expert. However, the weaning process did go really smoothly for us. My goal was always to breastfeed until 12 months, and I really had no expectations beyond that point.
I was lucky in that Theo was great at nursing right from the beginning. He never struggled with his latch and I always had a really good supply. I usually pumped a few times a week so that I would have a little freezer stash ready for if I wanted to go somewhere. For the most part though, I exclusively breastfed until he was 6 months. At 6 months we started introducing solids, which you can read about here. This is also the age where I transitioned him to his own crib. He was still waking up about once a night to nurse though.
At 8 months Theo started sleeping through the night. We were still breastfeeding during the day but he was also eating three meals a day at this point. At this point I knew that he was able to sleep through the night and that he was eating plenty of foods throughout the day. This is when I considered him night-weaned. What I mean by this is that if he did wake up in the night I no longer nursed him. I felt confident that if he did occasionally wake up at night, it wasn’t because he was hungry.
At age one we dropped to three nursing sessions a day. We nursed first thing in the morning, after his morning nap, and before bed. Fortunately, he has always been a little foodie, so I just replaced the nursing sessions with snacks and he was perfectly happy. Over the next month he just naturally dropped the middle of the day nursing session on his own. When he woke up from his morning nap he was ready to play and didn’t want to sit and nurse anymore.
For the next few months we stuck to nursing first thing in the morning and before bed. In the mornings he would point to my room because he wanted to lay in bed and nurse when he woke up. This was the session I think we were both the most attached to, and it was the last session I gave up. For a few months the feed right before bed had been really short. Theo would only nurse for a minute or two and then fall asleep in my arms in the rocking chair in his room. One night I decided to try and put him to bed without nursing him first, and he didn’t care at all. He didn’t cry or pull at my shirt, he just went to sleep. I felt like his reaction meant he no longer needed that session, so after that we were just down to the one morning nursing session.
I was prepared to hang on to our morning feeds for a while, because it seemed like such a special time for Theo and I. He always woke up and instantly pulled on my shirt, so I knew he still wanted to nurse. Then randomly one morning, right after he turned sixteen months, he just didn’t want to anymore. He woke up for the day and started playing with Jordan and just forgot all about me (joking, kinda). It seemed like he was just ready to be done. He occasionally tried to pull down my shirt and made a move towards the goods, but I just redirected him to either playing with a toy or I would offer him milk in a cup, and he never seemed to mind.
I always hear women talk about how rough the weaning process is, but that wasn’t my experience. It’s most likely because I did take it really slow and dropped one feed at a time based on Theo’s readiness cues. The week after we stopped completely, Theo had a cold and I was feeling pretty tender, so I let him nurse. He’s never really seemed interested since that day and after that I didn’t have anymore discomfort. He does occasionally still pull on my shirt but I just redirect him or distract him with a snack or something fun and he forgets about it.
My best tips for making the breastfeeding weaning process go smoothly are:
Go slow.
Don’t try to stop cold turkey unless you want to deal with a lot of discomfort and an unhappy baby. I recommend dropping one feed at a time slowly, over the course of a week if not longer.
Go off of your little one’s cues.
If your child begins to stop initiating the nursing session, that probably means they don’t need or want it anymore. If there is crying or signs up being upset involved, consider keeping that session for a little longer.
Distract.
If you are ready to be finished breastfeeding and your little one isn’t, have distractions ready. Have a cup of milk ready for them when they wake up in the morning, try new snacks during the afternoon or a fun new toy to occupy them.
Be prepared for some discomfort.
Even when you wean slowly, you still might experience discomfort and tenderness. I hand expressed a few times when I had a lot of tenderness after weaning. Cold applications to the breasts can also feel really nice. If your breasts feel warm to the touch or look red, you develop a fever, or just otherwise feel ill, these can be signs of mastitis and you should see your doctor immediately.
Did you breastfeed? If so, what was your weaning experience?
