Bye Bye Booby - Part 3

This post should be much shorter than the previous weaning posts. I continued by dropping one more feeding this past week; the 3:00 feeding.

I didn't keep a day by day log as I had done before because it was really an uneventful week. Other than Brennan doing GREAT with his new sippy cup. Once he was up to two sippy feedings/day, he seemed to be fine without a bottle. That's what Anna had told me all along!

I never woke up with any discomfort and only had slight discomfort during the first two days. Just like when I dropped the 11am feeding, Brennan's nap scheduled determined how many feedings he got during the day. Most days he had a total of four feedings still; two nursing and two from the sippy. A couple of days he only ate three times. He started doing so well drinking from the sippy, that I increased the amount of those feedings to 6 oz. He started with exactly half breast milk and half cow's milk. Currently, he is getting a little more cow's milk than breast milk with each sippy.

I am so happy weaning is going so well. Brennan doesn't seem to miss nursing at all. He usually eats right after nap and he almost always wakes up from naps happy, so when I hear him start to wake up from one, I still have plenty of time to get his sippy all fixed up (I am warming it up still at this point) before he gets upset in his crib.

We are currently in the process of dropping the nighttime feeding and so far that is going equally well. He's such a little trooper! He's doing a great job of feeding himself more table foods too, so I know he's getting plenty to eat.

Okay, enough about boobies. How 'bout some pictures of the cute little guy?!?!

Brennan and Ringo love each other!

These pictures were posed. Thankfully he hasn't learned to pull up in his crib yet. We did go ahead and lower his mattress down one notch just in case he does it out of the blue one day.

Hi everybody!

Bye Bye Booby - Part 2

Here's my next recap about weaning Brennan!

As I mentioned before, I got most of my weaning ideas from here. I made it through the first week of dropping pumping at night without too much discomfort. I certainly didn't need a full week before dropping the next feeding, but it was nice not to rush the process. This past week, the plan was to drop Brennan's 11am feeding. Several days Brennan took crazy long morning naps, so I did drop a feeding, but it wasn't always the 11am one. For example, we had swim class Tuesday morning from 9:30-10:30. He ate when he woke up, then after class he went right down for a nap. He slept for 3.5 hours, so when he woke around 2, I nursed him. That day he only received a total of three feedings. He didn't take a sippy or a bottle at all. So, it wasn't quite as easy to drop a specific feeding as I thought it would be.

I was also very ambitious with this weaning process. Since Brennan has only had a bottle a handful of times, I wanted to try to wean him directly to a sippy cup. His doctor had also told me it was fine to start cow's milk with him at 11 months, so I decided to mix breast milk and cow's milk from the very beginning, so I could hopefully make the transition to cow's milk easier. However, he wasn't drinking much from a sippy by the second day, so I switched a bottle. Mostly because I wanted to see which variable was keeping him from eating: the sippy or the cow's milk. He hasn't been drinking his entire bottle, but he is certainly drinking more from the bottle than from the sippy, so he doesn't seem to mind the cow's milk. As we continue the weaning process, I really want him to be using a sippy, but we'll see how it goes. I have been giving him his sippy or bottle while he's sitting in my lap in his room; the same place I nurse him.

With all that said, here's my recap from this past week.

Week Two - Dropped the 11am(ish) feeding
Jan. 8 - Dropped one feeding (his naps were off, so his feeding times were off), nursed him three times during the day; gave him a sippy cup with 3oz. of breast milk mixed with 3oz. of cow's milk and he drank 1/2 of it.
Jan. 9 - woke up with A LOT of discomfort in the morning and the morning feeding only relieved some of it; dropped the 11am feeding, but moved his third feeding up a little to help with the discomfort; gave him a sippy with 3oz. of breast milk mixed with 2 oz. of cow's milk (this is the same ratio I am still using at this time, until he drinks the whole amount and seems to need more) and he only took a few drinks, but we were at church, so it was a different environment; however he took a really good nap in the church nursery and another good afternoon nap, so I think he had plenty to eat; I nursed him three times.
Jan. 10 - woke up with no discomfort; gave him a sippy around 11:30 and we tried a different kind of cup, but he barely took any of it; he ate his solids at this meal, so I figured he was fine; nursed him three times.
Jan. 11 - woke up with no discomfort; we had swim class this day and he slept through his 11am feeding, so he didn't even try a sippy this day; I nursed him three times.
Jan. 12 - woke up with no discomfort even though Brennan slept in - we had to wake him up at 8:30; tried a sippy, but he wouldn't take it at all, so I switched to a bottle and he drank about 3oz. of a 5oz. bottle; nursed him three times.
Jan. 13 - woke up with no discomfort; he got a bottle at 11am and drank 3.5oz; nursed him three times.
Jan. 14 - woke up with no discomfort; he got a bottle, but didn't finish it; nursed him three times.

So that was our 2nd week. Brennan is doing well and doesn't seem to miss the dropped feeding. This week I am dropping another feeding and for the past two days, he had taken two bottles each day and no sippy.

What are your thoughts? Should I just stick with the sippy and assume he will drink if he is thirsty enough? Should I give him a bottle for the next few weeks and then work on the sippy? He does drink a little water from a sippy, so he can use it; just not very proficiently. I am thinking if he takes a bottle during the weaning process, I might make him go cold turkey to a sippy after his first birthday. So many choices!!!

This is the sippy we are using.

We tried this one, but he doesn't really seem to like it.

And I just bought this one today, but Brennan's is blue, not pink. :)

I think I am becoming obsessed with sippy cups!

Bye Bye Booby

If you don't want to read about breastfeeding, you might as well stop reading now.

We are about one month from Brennan turning one! (Whoa!) As of the first of the year, he was nursing four times each day. His meal times are approximately 7, 11, 3, and 6. At three of those meals, he also eats solids. He has always been a fast nurser, but lately he has become very distracted. If he nurses for five minutes per side I consider it long, so I have decided it is time to start weaning him. I think Brennan could do it cold turkey but I'm not up for that, so we are dropping one feeding per week. I also pump every night to have breast milk I can mix with his cereal, so there are technically five "feedings" throughout the day. Pumping at night has given me a good supply of frozen breast milk I can use as I start dropping feedings.

I thought I'd go ahead and blog about our weaning adventures so a.) I can remember what I did and how it went and b.) others might get some ideas that may work for them.

I got the majority of my ideas from here. I was going to do one big weaning post when we were all done, but I think it will be a little long-winded, so I'm going to do it weekly. So lots of reading about boobies coming up!

Week One - Stopped pumping at night
Jan. 1 - First night of not pumping (Hallelujah!)
Jan. 2 - Woke up with no discomfort at all (very surprising); nursed Brennan at his four regular times throughout the day.
Jan. 3 - Woke up with quite a bit of discomfort, but it passed after the morning feeding; nursed B four times during the day.
Jan. 4 - Woke up with a little discomfort, but it passed after the morning feeding; nursed B four times during the day.
Jan. 5 - Woke up with no discomfort; nursed B four times during the day.
Jan. 6 - Woke up with no discomfort; nursed B four times during the day.
Jan. 7 - Woke up with no discomfort; nursed B four times during the day.

Yesterday was our first day to drop one of his feedings during the day. I'll write all about that at the end of the week. I dropped his 11am feeding first since he gets solids with that meal. My plan is to drop the 3pm feeding after that, followed by the nighttime feeding, and finally the morning feeding.

Wish us luck!