End of our Breastfeeding Journey
I’ve always planned to breastfeed my children until they were at least a year old.
Jude breastfed until about 16 months.
Noah pretty much gave up breastfeeding at exactly one year.
I was a little sad to see our breastfeeding relationship come to an end, especially after all we’ve been through, but I know is it all in good timing. When Noah turned one I also hit 20 weeks pregnant with baby 3. I noticed my milk supply starting to drop so I tried taking some herbs to increase my supply but Noah got too frustrated and didn’t want to nurse long enough to stimulate more milk.
So we stopped breastfeeding.
Honestly, I didn’t try too hard to increase my supply since he was turning one and most of his nutrition came from solid food.
We decided to switch him over to cow’s milk. I wasn’t sure he’d like cow’s milk since it took Jude a long time to like it but he took to it right away. (I was a relieved because the whole low milk supply thing was starting to stress me out.) So now Noah drinks a little milk before going to sleep (naps and bedtime) and the rest of the day he eats and drinks whatever we eat or drink. He seems happy with the new situation and only a few times has he tried to get in my shirt.
When I became pregnant with baby 3 I was prepared to tandem nurse if necessary but I’m actually a little glad to have a short break from breastfeeding. While I love the bond it brings between me and my kids, it’s also nice to not be on-call 24/7 for boob time.
How long did you breastfeed?
Did you wean or did your baby self-wean?
My okdedt was 14 months when he self weaned. Now my daughter was hard. She stoppef nursing at 16.5 months and I was 7 months pregnant. She was not self weaned. I made the decision to wean her because I was literally a walking zombie from being up all night with her.
I understand, sometimes there is a point when they are essentially weaned but still use the boob for comfort and you just have to put and end to it, mostly for your sanity. We sort of did that with Jude, he’d only nurse for about 5 min MAX before bed each day and I just decided to drop it one day and he eventually got over it.
I pumped exclusively with my daughter for 14 months.
Riley is 14 months right now and he only breastfeeds before bed.Sometimes in the middle of the night if he wakes up screaming and occassionally over the weekend for nap time or if he’s not feeling well. I no longer pump and he’s drinking cow’s milk from his sippy during the day.
I’m going to let him self wean as it’s not tampering with my sleep or anything else. We don’t plan to get pregnant for at least another year, maybe two, so an impending baby also isn’t an issue.
Congrats on making it a year! That’s really all they need and you should be proud he’s growing up to be such a little man! 🙂
We are making the transition to sippy cup but sometimes he doesn’t want to drink milk from a sippy. What type of sippy cup do you use?
I nursed my toddler while pregnant and am now tandem nursing. That drop in supply during the second trimester was ROUGH though!! Good for you on making it to a year with both babies!!
nursing while pregnant is rough. I was hoping to tandem nurse hoping it would eliminate that whole, waiting for my milk to come in after baby is born bit. How old are your 2? I’m very curious about tandem nursing.
With my son, I pumped for 4 months, then stopped. With my daughter we have now been nursing for almost 18 months. She will be 18 months on the first of the month. She only nurses at night if she wakes. It is how she comforts herself back to sleep. I have thought about and very casually tried weaning, but she is having none of that. it is just a screaming match and I don’t feel like having a screaming child in the middle of the night. usually she is latched for 10-15 minutes and then back in her crib. AT this point, we are going to let her self wean and decide when she is done.
Lyn, that is a great idea. I’m all for self weaning. I would have loved to have nursed Noah longer but pregnancy and low supply sort of made self-weaning easier than normal.