A few months back you may remember my post talking about our breastfeeding journey, I spoke about our choice to carry on past 1 year and how I know that Abbie will stop when she's ready..
Well, I decided to do something I never thought I would do, I started weaning her..
Why? Although it was a comfort thing for her more so than a food source now, it was becoming to be her answer for everything, whenever she hurt herself, even in the slightest, she would grab for my top and ask for 'boobie', if she didn't get her way, she would ask for boobie, if we told her no, she would ask for boobie, so instead of it just being a comfort when she was really upset, it was her go to for anything, and although I'm happy she had something to give her so much comfort, it was coming to the point where she was feeding up to 20 times in the day and comfort feeding in the night again, she was then full of so much milk that she'd have lots of trapped wind and therefore waking up in the night quite a bit too..so I decided it was time to slowly wean her down, not stop, but instead of going with the 'don't offer but don't refuse' thing, I began distracting her..Instead, I had decided to give it to her before nap time and before bedtime, as she's always associated it with sleep, I didn't want to take that away from her..So the first day was the hardest day, although much much easier than i had ever thought it would be, every time she asked for it (which was about 15 times that day), I would distract her with a toy, some activities or something that would seem far more interesting that hanging on my boob..It wasn't stressful, my plan was to distract but not let her get too upset about it, she was pretty good at leaving it alone, there were a few occasions where she would put her hand down my top and grab it out of my bra then grip it with her tiny but super sharp nails, ouch.
That night, was the first night in a long long time where she used boob to get to sleep, then didn't want it to settle herself back down in the middle of the night, instead she looked at me, saw I was there and settled herself. No stress, no tears, not even a moan, she was happy to know I was there and could feel my warmth and my skin, and off she went back to sleep.
Each day after then it has got easier and easier, she either doesn't ask at all now or will ask when she's tired, and is very easily distracted now.
What makes it even better is that she has started to have her usual feed at night then gets drowsy from it, and even lets go now and is just content and happy to snuggle against it and fall asleep, it's so much easier on me now, no longer do I have to have a toddler attached to my boob all night and not be able to get comfy, I can simple feed her, put her down and she will stay asleep..of course she isn't magically sleeping through the night but i've been super surprised at how much better she is sleeping! It's another step closer to being able to leave her upstairs for long periods at night time and regaining some of my 'freedom' I guess, just an hour or two a night to watch TV would be super nice :), but for now, we are persevering with this and would advise anyone who is worrying about doing the same thing, that it's really not hard to do, if your little one is ready, they will take to it like a duck to water..I promise you, the weaning process doesn't have to be hard, you don't even have to stop completely, like us, she still has her 2 feeds a day, but she has other ways of comforting herself, be it with one of her favorite toys or just a cuddle, I can feel normality coming back now and it feels so good :).
I am not going to stop breastfeeding her completely, but she is showing me signs of not needing it as much now, but this is a choice I'm going to let her choose, it's a special moment and the way she snuggles into my body is so beautiful, she fits perfectly and the snuggles are the best part :)
Remember as well, it's your choice how long you breastfeed for, there is no right or wrong thing to do, listen to your intuition and listen to your baby, whether you do it for 2 days or 2 years, do not let anyone judge you! It's your body, your baby, your choice :)
x
