About 10 months ago, I was about ready to have “the baby.” (For some reason, when I talk about being pregnant, I can’t make myself say “Audrey.” We didn’t know what we were having and we didn’t use the boy or girl names that we had picked out, so we always said “the baby.” To me, “the baby” didn‘t become “Audrey” until she came out and we knew she was a girl. Does that make sense?)
Anyway…when I was getting close to having “the baby" aka…Audrey, I was very determined that I wanted to breastfeed. I always knew I wanted to breastfeed and if I could, I wanted to breastfeed for the first year. Because I wanted to so bad, there were things I was nervous about: I was worried that she wouldn’t latch on correctly. I was worried that I wouldn’t make enough milk for her. I was worried that I would be the lucky one that cracked and bled and it would be so painful that I would just give up.
And everything was fine. Breastfeeding has been very easy (once we got past the first 3 weeks of exhaustion and an episode of mastitis) and convenient and amazing and I love the fact that 4 times a day (now…it used to be a LOT more) I get to sit and hold her and she’s content just being in my arms.
Now here we are, 10 months later and I’m trying to figure out how to stop breastfeeding!! For some reason, this is much more complicated than getting started! I want to have Audrey completely weaned by her first birthday, which is about 2 months away. I want to give myself plenty of time to take it slowly so it’s not painful…I’d rather not be engorged. After I was sick last weekend and didn’t eat much for a few days and Audrey was sick and also lost her appetite, I’d noticed that my milk supply had gone down. I wasn’t really planning on starting to wean her this early, but now I feel that I need to for her sake (so she doesn't starve).
I’m completely fine with moving on from this phase of our lives. I’ve loved it but it must end soon. I never wanted to breastfeed longer than a year so I’m ready to start this process. The problem is that Audrey isn’t quite ready yet. I do not want to use bottles anymore and the girl refuses to use a sippy cup! I started giving her a sippy cup with some diluted juice in it about 3 months ago…and we’ve tried 4 different kinds of sippy cups and she thinks they’re all teethers!! She chews on them…and smiles…and looks at me as though she’s saying “thanks for this new thing to chew on!!” She won’t put her lips around it and suck! I’ve tried to get her to suck on a straw that has some juice in it to teach her to suck…that didn’t work. She keeps her mouth open and plays with the straw with her tongue. I’ve tried putting some of my pumped milk in a sippy cup and still nothing. So then I removed the valve inside the sippy cup so the milk would drip out and she actually ate about 2 ½ ounces!!! But she wasn’t very happy about it. She kept turning her head toward me and looking at me as if thinking “mom, you’ve got the real stuff right there!!” I’ve heard that someone other than mommy should introduce the sippy cup or be the one to feed the baby when you’re starting to wean, but since I’m a stay-at-home mommy, I’ll be the one feeding her every meal of every day.
So…all you mommies out there that have successfully weaned your child/children and taught them to use a sippy cup…please…help me!! Any good advice or tips?!?
Tyson and Lisa
A little about us
- Tyson and Lisa
- We have been married 6 years and have an adorable, mischevious daughter, a handsome, obedient dog and baby #2 on the way! We love our life and can't wait to see what God has next for us! I write when I have time or when something interesting happens or if I just want to share something. But, most of all, I write so I can look back and remember this time in our lives. enjoy!
Audrey
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baby #2
Walter
5 comments:
it's a grandiose idea that never worked for me. both of the boys had to go to the bottle before a cup. keep giving it to her, eventually she'll get the idea. There are a few cups that have the a bottle-type tip. Hudson actually went from a bottle to a straw and Pierce eventually got the hang of a cup, but he was on the bottle longer. There's no science, just patience.
It was a crazy process. Fortunately Selah was ready for weaning, but she wasn't sure what to do with objects other than the breast! I used a bottle for a little while and switched to a Nuk orthodontic bottle with silicone sippy cup lid. That actually didn't work very well, so we did exactly what you did...sippy cups without the valve! It was really messy, but she eventually learned to deal with the valves. Good luck!
Ashley went to the bottle and then to sippy cups. We used the Avent bottles--you can buy sippy cup tops for them and handles so the bottle turns into a sippy cup--I don't know if that would help?
I really wanted to stop at one year, but we were moving, and I didn't want to stress her out, so we kept going, just slowing it down gradually to two feedings a day and finally one. Then I just said, Ok, on Thursday (the day she turned 14 months) it will be the last day. And honestly, by that time, my milk had slowed down a lot, and we were ready to stop.
Also, Ryley really preferred straw cups to sippy cups; I think we stuck with those for some reason and didn't really do the sippy cups for very long.
Well, 19 years ago, when I was nursing Tyler, I always supplemented with bottles so other folks could feed him and we just progressed to sippy cups. Big difference is that the sippy cups were just little Tupperware cups with no anti-leak lids. Also, both of my kids liked straws. I was lucky. Of course, those sippy cups sure stained my carpet. Good luck with this new endeavor.
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