To Wean or Not to Wean, part 2
One advantage of a weaned baby 
(To read part 1, click here) While Nathan was certainly a large baby, he has nothing on Joshua. Joshua is by far my biggest baby. Consequently, he is also my hungriest baby. While my milk supply had leveled off at about five months with about Emily and Nathan, it started leveling off even earlier with Joshua, at about four months. As with Emily and Nathan, I tried extra pumpings, eating the appropriate foods, staying hydrated, everything I could think of. Even with starting cereal at five months, I could tell the milk I was producing wasn’t quite enough.
The last straw occurred at church two weeks before Christmas. During the first hour of church, Joshua drank an entire ten-ounce bottle of pumped milk. Two hours later, he drank another ten-ounce bottle of pumped milk. He was really hungry, and I knew there was no way that I was making that much milk every day. So, I decided it was time to wean him.
Joshua is now a bottle-fed baby. With Nathan and Emily, I was mentally and emotionally ready to wean them. It had been long enough for me. With Joshua, though, I wasn’t ready to wean him yet. It was really hard to let go of that aspect of our relationship, and he wasn’t even six months old. He was hungry, though, and that was more important than my emotional need to nurse him.
Now that I’ve gotten over the emotional side of weaning, I’ll have to admit – bottles are awesome!!! While we were traveling for the holidays, I could feed him anywhere, at anytime without making myself or anyone around me uncomfortable. Other people could help me feed Joshua. When we went shopping at the outlets, I fed him a bottle in Banana Republic. That was so much easier than trying to find a place to nurse him. He’s also much faster with a bottle than me.
Nursing is best for babies. Research has supported this time and time again. I didn’t make enough milk for my big baby, though, so it was time for him to move on to formula. And now that we’ve made the switch, it’s a bit liberating to not be supporting someone else for the first time in over a year. Wahoo!!!
How was the experience of weaning your baby? Did you struggle with the decision too?
Hi Brynn, glad you are liberated! Isaac is a year and a half and he is still nursing once when he wakes up and once when he goes to bed. He is a good eater, and doesn’t nurse either time for more than a couple minutes, so I think it is more for snuggle time than anything else. I get the feeling he will be over it soon though…I am ready to be liberated as well (:
As much as it was a sad, emotional day that first day he didn’t nurse, it really is soooo nice to be able to feed him anywhere. Good luck on your upcoming liberation!