Milk Weaning - The Story So Far...

The past few weeks we have been part weaning from breastfeeding. I've been trying to avoid writing about this for many reasons.

I guess the main one is the "I told you so's." There are always people who think you should have done this months ago. There are also people who think you should never do it and let babies wean when they're ready. I think every baby is different, and I think every way is hard. This has been working for us so far.

The other reason is that I don't want to sound like I know what I'm doing! I don't - simple. It's easy to come across as preachy - "this is the way to do it". This is only one way of doing it and definitely not the right way - just a way!

Anyway - with that out the way - this is what we've been doing.

I've been dreading returning to work. For all the obvious reasons related to leaving Alice, but also because she was incredibly dependent on me.

We were still feeding to sleep for all naps. Alice was still breastfeeding 5 times a day, plus once in the night (we only got that down from twice a month or so ago). However this was fine by me - I was in no rush to tackle it and we were happy. I'm pretty much happy to plod along with the whole attachment parenting train, and I loved most of it. (Bits I didn't love included no sleep!)

So I decided it was time to adapt it a little. We've been kind of loosely using the No Cry Sleep Solution, mixed with a lot of Dr. Sears, and a bit of Lizz is just making this shit up. It seems to be working for us!

I started off with the 10am nap. I know Alice didn't NEED milk then, just kinda wanted it, so I started trying to rock her down to sleep. This started off as a nightmare, then got easier. I count to keep my sanity and know that I've not been up there forever!

After about a week of this I attempted the afternoon nap. This is the least successful - Alice hates afternoon naps! Same again - trying to rock to sleep. This is still a work in progress and can be a bit hit or miss.

So at this point I'm 2 weeks in and have managed to drop all feeds between 9 and 5 - hurrah! I'm feeling better about returning to work, and everyone's happy! I could stop here and be happy. She is getting much better at getting herself to sleep - probably 50% of the time she manages it.

However - I'm all about following Alice. And the past 3 days - she's dropped her 5pm breastfeed too. Andddd has been sleeping through. This is like a pure miracle. Literally I could weep.

I'm not expecting this to continue forever, but at the moment we're down to 2 feeds a day. Both milk feeds have been replaced by snack times instead. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

Breastfeeding is hard. No-one tells you how hard it is. Or time consuming. Or isolating at times. However - future Lizz remember this - it gets better!!

With love and light xo