Weaning

Well, I surely never saw this coming, but it seems that Jeff has tried to wean himself in the past week or two. Or something is going on with me. I don't know. It wasn't my decision to wean him, I was planning to breastfeed until he was at least a year old! I just kind of didn't see it coming, I noticed he seemed that he didn't want to feed as often, but I just thought it was another phase and he would come out of it. He still liked to feed in the morning and for bedtime, and usually 2-3 other feedings during the day. Then all of a sudden he quit nursing in the late afternoon, and I even called the nurse helpline to make sure that he wasn't missing out on anything by not nursing as much, but they said that based on what he was eating as far as solids go, he should be getting everything he needs and not to worry if he was only feeding a few times a day. Then he didn't want to nurse at lunch time either, and I thought maybe he was struggling because he had a bit of a runny nose. I thought my milk production might be going down, because at this point sometimes he would cry in the morning after starting to nurse, and would refuse to go back on, and when I would pump I didn't seem to be getting much. I tried to get my production to increase by pumping more, and it seemed to work a little but he still wasn't feeding much, and just didn't seem interested. He has kind of done this before, where he seemed upset when nursing, and another time went on a bit of a strike. So maybe this is just a phase, but as of the day before yesterday, he refuses to nurse and will get upset if I try. He will take a bottle just great, and seems to like it because of how fast he can drink, and that he can look around and try to hold the bottle himself. It is crazy and I don't know if it has actually hit me that I may be done with nursing with Jeff. I feel a bit sad about it and feel bad and wonder if I could have done anything to change it. I guess I think I just have an independent little boy who wants more freedom to look around and do things by himself. Yikes, he is growing up too fast. I did read that sometimes babies will wean themselves fairly young, sometimes around 9 months. I guess we'll see, but I think we might be done. Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well, and we'll post more photos soon! ***4/9 Oh, and an update: I tried to do a little more research, and while some babies do this, it really is quite rare this early, and there were some tips on what can be done to keep them going. So I am still going to keep trying and just see what happens. He did nurse this morning when he woke up (at least a little) so maybe there's still a way to keep him (and me!) going.

photo by Richard Poppino