Got Milk?

Well it is official!! No I'm not pregnant! haha... but I AM done nursing!! Whooo Hooo! On the down-side that means I can clean the litter box again.... Yes as a perk of breastfeeding/ being pregnant I got out of having to clean the litter box for almost 3 years.... I know you can clean the litter box when you are pregnant or nursing... but eh, why take the risk? After all us women do all the hard work, JDub can clean up after the cat right? Well I can help now....

I guess I don't really know what amount of time has to pass before it becomes official... but its been over a week now :) It was rough... but I did it. After trying for a few days on my own... I researched a little bit online for some tricks of the trade. While I know most of you out there reading are not pregnant or breastfeeding... I still thought some of you might find it interesting to know how I weaned Ceej. Boys should probably stop reading now... it gets a little graphic......

Ceej is 16 months old. First thing you have to do is GRADUALLY decrease the amount of times you are nursing. I had it down to 2-4 times a day for a while there... He usually wanted to in the morning just when he woke up... then at nap times (he use to nap twice) and then at night...
I tried to just cut it down from 4 times to 1 time... but I would get engorged and be in pain. I did not want to have to get the breast pump back out... so I would nurse him just to ease my pain (which he didn't mind obviously!)

Finally I figured out I needed to be more gradual. I went down to nursing only 1 nap time a day for a day or so. Then the next 2 days I didn't nurse at either nap times. I found it really important to replace those times I would nurse with something fun instead! Either reading books... or a little snack. He would usually pull and yank on my shirt, throw a fit and whine, and finding other distractions like singing a song or patty-cake would take his mind off of it. I would also have a drink on hand to offer him instead.

One really interesting thing I read online mentioned NOT having "easy access"  to nurse. Since I had been nursing for over a year you would usually find me in a tank top, or low cut shirt that was easy to nurse in. Being home all day and having Ceej rarely take a bottle I was nursing alot and it was just easier to have "breastfeeding friendly" attire on. I didn't even think to stop wearing these types of clothes once I was trying to wean! It really did help too. When he would yank and pull on my low cut shirts he would get even more agitated seeing "the goods"! But once I switched to t-shirts and other restricting clothing he would usually give up and move on to something else.

I found it helped me to have JDub put Ceej to bed at night to help stop that night-time feeding. He knew he wouldn't get any milk from Daddy... and it helped ease my stress in seeing poor Ceej in distress. I know some moms out there are extreme... and they might think I'm a terrible mother for denying my child milk... but you have to stop breastfeeding sometime right?! You can't spoil your kids all their life... well you could but I don't like bratty kids... I mean hey whatever floats your boat really... but I was ready to be done.

Then finally I had it down to nursing once a day. Only in the morning when he just woke up. It was hard to stop this time. Ceej usually wakes up before Bubba's clock turns green in the morning... and I would usually pull him into bed with me and just relax and let him nurse. I am NOT a morning person so this extra "quiet time" was so nice... but I knew I wanted to stop nursing... so I had to get up and get going. I got him his own special cup of milk and spent that time playing and reading to him. I went one day w/o nursing... and nursed him the next day... and then finally stopped.

He still yanks on my shirt sometimes... and it was really hard with him being sick in the middle of it all... but we made it. :) He's still a happy lil guy! Sorry if I bored you to death...