When Emily was 5 months old, my body quit producing enough milk to keep up with her demands. She became increasingly fussy when she nursed and when we introduced a bottle, she immediately took to it and never looked back. I never had to consciously do anything to wean her.
When Savannah was 7 months old, the same thing happened again.
Based on those two experiences, coupled with the fact that we were in the process of moving overseas, when Sophie was born, I expected that she would be just as her sisters.
No. No, she wasn't. I was very surprised when she reached 9 months and was still going strong.
10 months....
11 months....
When she was 12 months old I talked with Brian about weaning her. But it was just so easy not to, no bottles to wash, no stumbling to the kitchen early in the morning. And I was still holding on to the hope that, like her sisters, she would wean herself.
Sophie was still nursing three times a day at 16 months old. It seemed to be more of a cuddling time than an actual need for food. She liked to snuggle and stroke my hair while she nursed. If my hair were in a pony tail, she would fuss until I would take it out so she could touch it.
Then I got a positive pregnancy test. And all of my friends started fussing at me about nursing Sophie. They told me how bad it was for me to be growing a baby and nursing and how I must stop.
Several friends suggested using cactus juice to make her decide that she didn't like it. However, I just couldn't do that to her. It felt so mean!
We were only nursing three times a day, so the first feeding I wanted to eliminate was the naptime one. I found the Naptime Book that I used with Savannah at naptime and began reading it to Sophie before her nap during the day instead of nursing. She loved the book and quickly became okay with the switch.
After about a week, it was time to choose another one to eliminate. At first, I thought the morning feeding would be the easiest to stop, because I could just feed her something in the morning and continue the night feeding for another week. However, it was the evening feeding that was the easiest to stop and just as the naptime, we started reading a book before bed instead of nursing.
The morning feeding almost stopped by itself. Instead of keeping the morning feeding for another week, it started as every other day and then gradually dropped off.
As of a week ago, Sophie is officially weaned.
Hurray!
When Savannah was 7 months old, the same thing happened again.
Based on those two experiences, coupled with the fact that we were in the process of moving overseas, when Sophie was born, I expected that she would be just as her sisters.
No. No, she wasn't. I was very surprised when she reached 9 months and was still going strong.
10 months....
11 months....
When she was 12 months old I talked with Brian about weaning her. But it was just so easy not to, no bottles to wash, no stumbling to the kitchen early in the morning. And I was still holding on to the hope that, like her sisters, she would wean herself.
Sophie was still nursing three times a day at 16 months old. It seemed to be more of a cuddling time than an actual need for food. She liked to snuggle and stroke my hair while she nursed. If my hair were in a pony tail, she would fuss until I would take it out so she could touch it.
Then I got a positive pregnancy test. And all of my friends started fussing at me about nursing Sophie. They told me how bad it was for me to be growing a baby and nursing and how I must stop.
Several friends suggested using cactus juice to make her decide that she didn't like it. However, I just couldn't do that to her. It felt so mean!
We were only nursing three times a day, so the first feeding I wanted to eliminate was the naptime one. I found the Naptime Book that I used with Savannah at naptime and began reading it to Sophie before her nap during the day instead of nursing. She loved the book and quickly became okay with the switch.
After about a week, it was time to choose another one to eliminate. At first, I thought the morning feeding would be the easiest to stop, because I could just feed her something in the morning and continue the night feeding for another week. However, it was the evening feeding that was the easiest to stop and just as the naptime, we started reading a book before bed instead of nursing.
The morning feeding almost stopped by itself. Instead of keeping the morning feeding for another week, it started as every other day and then gradually dropped off.
As of a week ago, Sophie is officially weaned.
Hurray!
Funny enough, we went through a similar evolution. Sam was down to 2 times by 15 months and when I had to travel for business right when I got pregnant, we just didn't restart when I got home. No trauma at all. (I'm due a few weeks after you.)
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