ReNe: weaned!

When I was pregnant, I thought maybe I'll breastfeed for about six months, until his teeth comes in and he would be able to bite. Later, I thought I'll breastfeed for a year, typical among many mothers here in Canada, where maternity leave is a year long. The initial couple of months were difficult, painful and bloody, but it soon became much easier. 

Six months became twelve, and in the end, I fed him for 22 months before I weaned him. That's astounding. Admittedly, after a year and half, I wasn't really supplying much by way of nutrition and he was feeding more from comfort than anything else -- whenever he fell sick, he would reject all solids and only wanted breastmilk. 

I chose to wean him gradually instead of cold turkey. Besides my concern for Ryan, I wanted to wean gradually for my own comfort as well, as I had too many bad memories of blocked ducts. Many many months ago, I realized the problem was first to get Ryan to accept a milk substitute. We tried a few brands of formula (an expensive process) and cow's milk, even goat's milk. It was all futile, until one day Ryan saw another baby drinking from a bottle and displayed some interest. From that little spark of curiosity, it took me a tremendous amount of effort to coax him to drink more and more. When he started in the August of 2010, at 15 months of age, he would only drink 30ml, maybe once or twice a day!  By early November, he would drink over 100ml each time, totalling 300-500ml daily. His taking to formula was quite crucial in weaning. It also helped him gain more weight than he did in the past many months!

The other thing I was worried about when weaning was getting him to sleep, as he often needed to nurse to sleep. Oddly enough, that problem resolved itself with little work on my part -- coinciding with his increased formula intake, he started to sleep better. He started to sleep through the night by October 2010 and he started to go to sleep by himself as well; I simply put him in his crib and close the door! 

At that time, however, I was still breastfeeding him five times a day! Gradually I started to cut down and by late December, I was feeding him two to three times a day. It was very slow going because whenever he fell sick, he would want more breastmilk instead of solids. It was two steps forward, one step back. Strangely enough, at that point in time, my breastmilk supply dropped easily whenever I dropped a feed, and even when he was sick and wanted to feed many times a day, my supply didn't increase rapidly the way it did when he was a few months old and undergoing a growth spurt. I guess my body really was ready to stop breastfeeding.

I was on the verge of weaning him in late January, 2011 (once a day, occasionally skipping a day) when he broke his tooth. Sigh. Once he recovered though, it took a short time to drop the feeds again, and the first week of March, feeding became intermittent. 

On March 5, just a few days shy of his 22 month birthday, I fed him for the last time. It was a Saturday morning and I remember lying there, knowing that would be the last time and feeling rather sad. Since then he has asked for it occasionally, even pleading with a cute "pwease", but I simply hand him a bottle of milk instead.