giving up breastfeeding

[Pook]

My dd is nearly 9 months old. I am due to return to work when she is a year old and am planning to substitute cows milk for breast milk at that time. She currently has 3ish feeds a day (more if really fractious), first thing, mid afternoon and last thing, with 3 very good meals at the usual times.

I'm getting a bit panicked at the moment about giving up the last breast feed of the day since it really seems like the most integral part of her going to bed routine. She starts to zone-out and get drowsy and, sometimes (gulp - I'll admit it) fall asleep on the boob. Who am I kidding, she almost always falls asleep this way.

I just wondered how you managed to drop the final feed? I think I'll really miss it - although it would be nice to feel more mobile in the evenings.

I do go on, don't i?

Pook - all 4 of my babies fell asleep on the breast last thing before going to bed and I didn't have any problems with them settling themselves. They all stopped feeding themselves ranging from 10-15 months. I was devastated by my last baby stopping herself at 15 months because I wanted to feed for longer but she had other ideas

Thanks Mears. I have been wondering whether to hang onto the morning and evening feeds even after dd is a year, for as long as she wants, but also am keen to have another baby in the next year or so and would rather not b/feed while pregnant. We shall have to see......

pook - I dropped all feeds for dd by the time she was about 1 (I was working full time then and got a big feed in before I went to work and as soon as I picked her up and then again bedtime - this was from 6 - 10 months) So by 12 months I only had the nighttime feed . We started wtih bottles gradually, a few a week and pretty soon it was down to 'middle of the night comfort feeds' - stopped by 15 months completely. I still miss it though! But 15 months was enough for me and dd I think.
Good luck in cutting down, it can be tricky ( more so for mummy!)

Pook, my dd stopped feeding at 12 months, she just didn't want to anymore. I was sad but also relieved that it was led by her and there were no tears. In hindsight, I realise that's about when I got pregnant so I don't know if it was coincidence or they were linked.

dd had fallen asleep on the boob all her life but just decided not to one day, I rocked her to sleep for a while and then she learnt to settle herself.

Go on all you like

I wasn't breastfeeding at that stage but ds1 did use his bedtime bottle to zone out and drop off as you describe - I wanted to stop bottles at around a year and switch to cow's milk, worried a lot about whether it would affect his settling, but in the end just did it and it was fine. For the first few weeks he didn't take much from the cup but that did pick up. It will be fine

Thanks all of you. While I'll miss the mutual comfort and the opprotunities for sit-downs, I wont miss the bras