I’ve been meaning to write this post for months, but, like the rest of my well-intended tales, everything else has taken precedence. So for those of you still wondering how the weaning process went this time around with Lana, please read on.
Unlike Della, who slept through the night by 3 months and never stopped, Lana was never a good sleeper. The longest stretch she ever slept through was 5 nights in a row, and oddly enough that was when my mom, the girls, and I went out to Tucson in February. Otherwise it was maybe every other night, if that. Then by the time she was 5, 6, 7 months old, her sleep had regressed terribly. She was waking pretty much every night, sometimes 2 or even 3 times a night. We were quickly going insane.
I took her into the doctor the day after her 7 month birthday for a sick visit, because I thought she might have an ear infection or 2 due to the amount of coughing, congestion, and ear pulling she was doing. Of course her ears looked perfect so there was nothing wrong there, but our pediatrician thought she probably had an upper respiratory infection of sorts, possibly left over from the croup she had at 6 months.
While there, she asked about her sleeping, and I described how horrible it had gotten. She was surprised and said that was not normal. I then brought up the subject of stopping breastfeeding, not because of the sleeping, but just because I was sick of it. Yes, I said it. I was starting to hate nursing Lana, especially when those multiple nightly wake-ups could often only be resolved by nursing her back to sleep. It was exhausting and annoying, and I had had enough.
I don’t know if it was because this was the second time around and I knew how the whole breastfeeding routine went from having done it with Della, or what, but that “magical mother-child bond” that everyone describes when they talk about breastfeeding was just not there anymore. Lana had always been a good eater and my supply was overabundant again, so there was no issue there. It was just time to be done.
As soon as I mentioned that I was kind of wanting to stop breastfeeding, the doctor said yes, let’s go ahead and wean her. Not a hint of hesitation. Yahoo! Sign me up. As much as I didn’t want to have to start paying for formula, I was so relieved she was actually recommending what I had secretly been hoping for and I wasn’t crazy for wanting to stop nursing my baby. Plus I was overjoyed to not have to mess with breastfeeding and pumping during the summer again, especially since this was just weeks before we were going on our big road trip out west.
I thought the whole weaning from breastmilk to formula process was going to be hellish and take forever, since the 1 time I tried to give Della formula she absolutely refused it and it was a disaster, so I was overjoyed that it turned out to be so much easier than I ever expected. The day after that doctor visit I tried giving her the first bottle of breastmilk mixed with formula – just 2 oz. of formula and 4 oz. of breastmilk. No dice. She wanted nothing to do with it. Well shit.
The next day I tried again, going with a little less formula mixed in, plus I heated the bottle, something I hadn’t done the day before. Much better. She drank the whole thing no problem. I think that was the key – the heating, not necessarily the ratio. Because after that I started increasing the amount of formula in each bottle pretty quickly.
She was fully weaned within 1 week, and, the best part of all this, she was consistently sleeping through the night within 2 weeks. Thank god!! I had no idea how powerful this was going to be for her sleeping, but I am now a full believer. From the start of the weaning process we gave her a full 8 oz. bottle at night before bed, something we continue to this day. She doesn’t always drink all of it, and a good number of times at the start she’d drink too much and then throw a bunch of it up, but at least we know she’s getting a good amount before sleeping. That was one problem with breastfeeding – I never knew how much she was actually taking, so if she got sleepy before she was actually full, that was probably why she’d wake up so much at night.
Plus the whole having to bounce her to sleep in my arms and then being deathly afraid of waking her when I placed her in her crib had gotten so incredibly irritating. When we started the weaning process that all changed too. No longer did we wait until she was asleep to put her in bed, but we put her down awake. That’s when her love of the big soft green monkey began as well. I knew she liked being snuggled into someone to fall asleep, so I just placed the monkey next to her in her crib because it was the biggest stuffed animal she had. Worked like a charm, and now as soon as she grabs it she knows it’s time to go to sleep, either for a nap or at night.
Since we did a gradual weaning transition with Lana instead of the abrupt stoppage that Della did on her own, me getting my milk supply to stop was kind of a nightmare. With D I did the whole cold cabbage leaves over 1 weekend, and that was that. This time I tried to just decrease the amount I pumped each day a little at a time over a couple week span, and it sucked. I would get so engorged that I couldn’t help but pump to relieve the pain, then everything would fill back up, and I’d have to go through it all again.
The thing that finally worked was pumping out just a tiny bit to alleviate the excruciating pain 1 side was causing me about 6 days after I had last pumped, and that was the solution. My method of simply not pumping at all was obviously not working. After that both sides were pretty much done in a matter of days. I did have to contend with some clogged ducts, which took me about another week to fully hand express, but there was no real supply left to speak of. That all took place during the first 2 weeks of June, so roughly 3-4 weeks after the weaning began.
And I did not miss any of it one bit. Whew.
So there you have it. Nope, didn’t make the 1 year breastfeeding mark with this one either, but honestly, I didn’t care. I was so ready to be done, that had I tried to continue it for another 5 months I think we all would have been much worse off than we are now. Ryan and I would have been utter zombies, I’m almost positive Lana would not be the wonderful sleeper she is now, and Della probably would have just run away from home since the rest of us would have been so mad all the time.
Now that Lana’s fast approaching her 1st birthday, too, (what?!?!) the days of paying for formula are also numbered. That wasn’t so bad. I finally switched to the CVS brand from Enfamil a few months ago after discovering that it’s essentially the exact same thing for almost $10 less per tub, so I saved us a little money there. Whole milk here she comes!
Thank you, baby formula, for turning our once sleepless monster into a well-rested, easy-to-bed, happy little girl. I will be forever grateful.