The end of an era

Alexis is officially weaned.  She turned 17 months old on Saturday, and I breastfed her for the last time a few days before that.  I have mixed feelings about it, as I'm sure most moms do.  I really enjoyed breastfeeding and the quiet time that it allowed Alexis and I to have together.  But I also enjoy the flexibility that I now have, especially at night time.  Now that I'm not breastfeeding her, if I need him to, John can be solely in charge of putting Alexis to bed.  I think I need to organise a girls' night out!

I'm really proud of myself for lasting so long.  I had the goal to exclusively breastfeed Alexis until she was six months old (I practically did this; she didn't have any solids until she was six months and only had formula for the first time a week before that), and then the goal to continue to breastfeed as needed until she was at least one year old (I definitely surpassed that one).  I wanted to write down how I weaned Alexis, because I'm pretty sure that by the time I have to do it again I won't remember exactly what I did:

I started introducing Alexis to cow's milk just after she turned one.  Even though I knew I wasn't ready to wean her, I wanted her to get used to the idea of drinking milk from a cup.  But, she hated it.  Every time we tried to give her cow's milk, she would spit it up and start gagging.  I guess I wasn't too surprised, because she never really liked formula either.  She took a goat's milk based formula in a bottle about once a week (usually at church) from age six months until she was about eight months, and then after that, she decided she didn't like formula or bottles.  After eight months I couldn't get her to drink any formula (and I tried them all - regular, soy, lactose intolerant, etc) from a bottle or a cup and I also couldn't get her to drink breastmilk out of a bottle, which she did all the time for the first five months of her life.  But, we persisted with the cow's milk and eventually Alexis would drink a tiny bit from a cup.  At 14 months, I was breastfeeding Alexis when she woke up in the morning (before breakfast), before her morning and afternoon naps,* and then at night, before her bedtime (total of 4 feeds).  I dropped her morning feed first (at 14 months) and just tried to get her to drink some milk with breakfast.  I waited until she was 15 1/2 months to drop a second feed (her afternoon nap) and then two weeks later I dropped a third feed (morning nap), so by 16 months old I was only breastfeeding her before bedtime.  I thought I would wait another two weeks and then drop that last feed, but the time arrived and I wasn't quite ready, so I waited another week and a half.  I think that I had to psych myself up for it.  Even though I was ready for the "freedom" that awaited me after I finished breastfeeding, I didn't want to give up that special bond that we shared.  So, I really tried to enjoy and savour the time I spent putting her to bed that last week.  When I finally worked up the courage to say to myself "ok, this is the last time," it was a few days before Alexis turned 17 months.  Alexis didn't complain at all.  The first night without breastfeeding, I just put her to bed like it was one of her naps and she went to sleep without any complaining.  It made me realise that I could have probably stopped breastfeeding her earlier, and that I was the one that wasn't ready.  Luckily for us, Alexis slowly started to drink more cow's milk, but even better, we discovered that she absolutely loves oat milk.  John and I only drink oat milk (well, not really drink, but use in cooking), but we had never given it to Alexis.  After comparing the nutrition panels on both products, we determined that it would be ok to give to her.  With cow's milk, Alexis would only drink maybe one whole cup a day (on a good day), and now she drinks usually two to three cups of oat milk.

So there you have it, how I weaned Alexis.  I truly enjoyed breastfeeding my baby and I'm so grateful that it was such a positive experience for both of us.  I can only hope that things will go so smoothly with our future children.

*Just as a side note, I didn't start breastfeeding Alexis before her naps until after she started standing up in her crib.  Up until that point, I had kept her to an 'eat, play, sleep' routine.  I found that once she could pull herself up in her crib, she would get too riled up, so I started nursing her to calm her down before nap time.  As she got older and was eating more solids, I got to the point (at 14 months), where I was only nursing her before she would go to sleep.