Stoppping Breastfeeding at weaning...........

[milkmummy1]

hi everyone
i am considering stopping breastfeeding when i wean my son at 6 months. i have excluslively breastfed for 5 months so far and I have got on so well with it and find it sooooo convinient (especially for a lazy lass like me)
i do feel guilty at the thought of stopping because baby has absolutely thrived on my milk. but the reasons i want to stop soon are:

• i always intended to put baby on a bottle at some stage so think now is a good time and dont want baby to get too dependent on me by BF for ages
• want more freedom and my boobs back (normal bras etc)
• responsbility tends to fall on me cause im always thinking about the next feed time. (ok so hubby needs a push some time but mum is dying to have baby for the night!!)
• dont want to not have to worry about what i eat and drink. am dying to have a drink again after a year of virtually nothing. am getting fed up when we have friends round of hubby getting drunk and me having to always be so and thinking about next feed.

just wondering if anyone else gave up at the weaning stage and how this worked out. also what tips you have for switching over from breast to bottle.
many thanks.

Babies don't become more dependent by breastfeeding. I've found the opposite to be the case: breastfeeding makes a child more secure and ready to assume independence for himself, while the baby denied the breast is fretful and clingy.

Your breasts will always be yours. You can still breastfeed without wearing specialist maternity bras and there are some pretty funky ones. Weaning (if not done very gradually) can leave your boobs looking like empty bags, which doesn't seem to happen when you wean at your baby's pace.

Breastfeeding just gets easier and more convenient the longer you do it. Your hubby and mum can help with everything else there is to do with a baby apart from breastfeed him - that is your special job and rather than look at it as a chore you might try looking at it as something special that only you are good enough to do.

You can have a drink or two without fretting about a tiny bit of alcohol in your milk. You can't get blotto no matter how you feed your baby because when you're responsible for children that's not on.

Ask yourself what you'll gain by giving up breastfeeding before you decide to stop. Once your baby starts on solids he'll cut back on breastfeeds and these will become shorter and less frequent, but are still important for him.
Good luck

The feeds will drop now and you can easily get away with offering a couple of formula bottles without affecting your supply if you want a break.

You can still have a drink - i do and baby doesn't get drunk i promise i only have one or two admittedly but hangovers aren't fun anymore anyway....when were they fun?......hmmmm

You can get all the things you mentioned in your post and still bf if you want to by the way. I excl bf to 6 months and then started leaving formula rather than expressed milk when I went out - though if I've missed a feed and am quite full when I get home I do express and freeze it.

I bf roughly four times a day now - first thing, late morning, afternoon, before bed with the occasional night feed if he's teething or very grumpy. Ds was used to bottles for ebm so we didn't have a problem with that and he takes formula ok.

I haven't left him overnight yet but I don't think feeding would be an issue. The times I've left him with a bottle I've just expressed if I've got uncomfortably full but even that doesn't happen to the extent it did in the early days.

I've had a couple of "big nights out" and just given him formula the next morning and expressed & dumped the bm (not fun with a hangover), and more medium sized nights out where I've just fed him the next morning with no ill effects. Alcohol leaves your bm at the same rate as it leaves your blood, but not much gets in there anyway.

I'm hoping to get away with not having to give formula as a main drink at all as I find the whole bottle washing/preparation thing a right pita.

Have a think about it. I've found bf past 6 months waaaaaaay easier than the first 6 so I'm not ready to stop yet and I don't think I've had to compromise anything by continuing.

Agree with general consensus. I was never any good at pumping so when I went back to work when DS was 8.5 months he had formula in the day and breastmilk when I was around. I'm still feeding him morning and evening and I wear normal bras, drink when I want, have left DS with DH or MIL for four or five days at a time... it's not an all-or-nothing decision.

thanks everyone, this has been really helpful. Reading your responses has made me think twice abotu giving up all together. Maybe i shoudl just stop exclusive breastfeeding and introduce formula for some of the time. as long as my milk doesnt dry up and boobies get too full though?

If you stop expressing and introduce the odd bottle of formula you are unlikely to get too full.

Even if you only breastfeed "parttime", (which is what i do as i work 3 days a week) at least you have the flexibility to not bother with bottles when it suits you. e.g. we've just been away for a week and it was great to not have to lug huge amounts of bottles and formula around, i took one bottle and a couple of cartons just in case my body didn't supply enough but it worked our fine!

Hi milkmummy, my DD is 6.5 months and I introduced a bottle 2 weeks ago having exclusively bf for 6 months. I felt exactly like you - wanted more freedom, etc - but also felt guilty. I now think she has benefitted from 6 months of bf, and I don't see why we should feel guilty for wanting more freedom at this stage. I am still bfing, I just do combined feeding now and she has 2 bottles of formula a day, the rest are breastfeeds. Do what feels right for you, but I am finding a combination is really working. I have only switched 2 feeds so don't get too full and it has given me the flexibility to do things I wouldn't have been able to. A happy mum has to be a better mum, right?

Just wanted to say I also found breastfeeding much easier after 6 months (and so did the people I know how fed past 6 months).
Also I've always had a glass or two of wine most nights while feeding and it never seemed to affect DS1 or DS2.
Am sure you can mix feed if that makes you feel more free. However, breastfeeding is also less hassle in terms of not having to sterilise/make up bottles etc...
Also agree it's easier if you enjoy your time b-feeding your baby rather than seeing it as a chore. This time goes v quickly anyway so why not enjoy it and make the most of the fact it makes you sit down and relax with your LO.