Planning to stop breastfeeding

[Harrietsmummy2013]

I think I am now at a point where I am wanting to stop breastfeeding or at least drop it to just a bedtime feed with the option for her to also accept cows milk from a sippy cup. Is it possible to do both? As I write this I realise I have said 'I' a lot and there is a bit of me that's feeling a bit selfish but I do feel that I need to regain a bit of 'me' and that if I do this it will benefit my daughter as I will feel a bit more free and relaxed as I do feel tied to the house at bedtime. It would be nice to visit a friend once in a while and not have to wait until bedtime. Also I am going to be away for 3 nights in Feb for my best friends hen weekend and currently I would be worried about how much milk my little one would get and whether she would sleep without breastfeeds She does have a bit of cows milk from a sippy cup at nursery and when she's with her nanny as I work 3 days a week. However when she's with me I breastfeed out of habit and don't use sippy cups. I guess I should start to introduce these also for consistency? Does anyone have any suggestions please? Thank you!

How old is she?

Good point! She's 15 months.

As she's used to a sippy cup, you could just introduce cow's milk instead of a breastfeed at whichever feed you want to change.

I kept the bedtime feed the longest, but changed it timing wise so that it wasn't done last thing before bed. I did it before the last nappy change, and cleaned his teeth afterwards as well. So he wasn't going to sleep immediately afterwards. This made it easier for others to do bedtime if I wasn't there.

For me it was really hard to drop feeding when I was around until he was a little older and had more language. He now fully understanding 'boobies are asleep now'

I left my son alone with his dad for two one-night trips when he was 13 and 14 months. I was worried as he still fed a few times a day and flat out refused any other form of milk, although he would take water from a sippy cup. I did pump and leave a night-time feed but he barely had any of it, and he was actually fine without it. It turns out that when I'm not around he just goes with his dad's routine and doesn't even fuss about not feeding. You might find that's the case with yours.

I went back to work full time when DS was 12 months. By that time he was already having lunchtime milk from a bottle (I find a bottle soothes much better than a sippy cup which is hard and not nipple-like!) with a BF first thing and at bed time. He's 19 months now and the routine has not changed at all!!

Because he quite happily has milk from a bottle (and I mean cows milk, not formula) he is more than happy for DH or the nanny or my mum to put him to bed with a bottle rather than a BF. So I don't have that feeling of being tied to the house at night and can go out. I also went away for a hen do when he was around 16 months I think and he just had bottles with DH. I didn't pump or anything, and was just away for 2 nights but all was fine when I came back.

Would that maybe make it easier?

Thank you all for your suggestions, I think I'll try to start introducing cows milk in a bottle for the bedtime feed and see how that goes. My husband had also suggested to me that he thought a bottle may be more comforting than a sippy cup just for the bedtime and nap feeds. Would be nice for my husband also to be able to do the last feed so he can have bedtime milk snuggles, as I have hogged this since birth! My friend has suggested I stay at her house, just up the road one night in a few weeks to see how it goes as I know I tend to hover in the background all anxious when we are trying something new, so will probably be a good thing if I leave husband and daughter to it. I know they'll be fine....... Just can't turn off my anxious mummy brain sometimes!!

I would just say that current NHS advice is to drop all bottles by 12 months, so it might not be ideal to introduce them at 15 months. You would have to clean her teeth after the night time bottle anyway, so it's not like she would be falling to sleep with the bottle as a comforter.