How long am I likely to feel fed up after drastically reducing ds's breastmilk intake?

[mawbroon]

DS is 2.7 and after a disasterous attempt at "Never offer, never refuse" I decided to cut down to feeding morning and night only.

Never offer, never refuse ended up with him really feeling the lack of a boundary and he became clingy, whingy and wanting milk all day long (or so it felt). Anyway, he is much happier now we have cut down, which is great, but I am really feeling crabbit and a bit fed up.

I don't know how much of it is hormonal and how much of it is related to the fact that ds now has zero down time through the day. We do quiet stuff together but it is not the same break for me as sitting down feeding was.

He is now eating like a horse so I am guessing he was drinking fairly large quantities of breastmilk.

Have I just been cruising along on feel good hormoes since he was born and have now entered real life? Or will this feeling pass when the hormones settle?

Your post really surprises me and just goes to show how every child is different, and every mother too.

Can't remember any of my 3 having significant "down time" during the day at age 2.7. One of them was still bf at that stage and the other 2 had given up more than a year before. I do know that dropping the daytime sleeps varies a great deal between children.

What does crabbit mean? Irritable? Is it the same as a bit fed up? I loved bf but there was also a sense of freedom when giving it up - a return to having my body back to myself. Look on the bright side!

What is it that surprises you elasticwoman? Yes, sorry, crabbit means grumpy and irritable.

By down time, I am talking about a nap, or the lovely snuggly feeds that we used to have when he was tired during the day. Often these feeds would lead to us both falling asleep which was lovely I must say.

I think I would have started saying no to him long ago were it not for the fact that he can't tolerate anything dairy related and I was anxious about him getting plenty of my milk to keep his calcium intake up. I recently tried him on goats milk/cheese/yogurt etc and he has been fine, so I can take that bit out of the equation now.

I am not feeling the thing about having my body back I must say, because I am also cutting down to aid ttc, so no point in hoping for my body back I guess...

I have done the same in the last month with my 18 month old, I felt depressed for a couple of weeks to be honest, but now feel much better. Also cutting back for ttcing.

Another downside is I've put on weight - as obviously my calories were going to my DD. A double whammy.

Gosh, as long as a couple of weeks Tapster. I have also noticed that my usually mammoth appetite has disappeared and I am being careful not to eat for the sake of it but no doubt I will pile some on...

Lordy, I have just chatted to my LLL leader about this. She said that everyone is different and it could last anywhere from a few days to maybe a full cycle or even two! Yikes, poor DH!

What surprised me was the effect on your mood of cutting down on bf, as this never happened to me and I never heard of it before.

Also, if you are ttc, then all the more reason to look ahead, embrace the future optimistically ....

Does your ds like watching tv? That can calm a toddler down a bit after lunch.

I think if you cut down really gradually then it is probably a lot less noticeable, but all my attempts at gradually cutting down really unsettled ds hence the drastic reduction in feeding.

I wouldn't like to guess what volume of milk he was drinking through the day, but given that he was eating like a bird and is now eating like a horse, I would be willing to bet that it was a large amount of milk.

No tv for ds here, and it's not something that I am willing to start at the moment tbh. I am dropping ds off with granny just now and will blitz the house. Surprisingly, if I get motivated to start, I can sometimes find cleaning etc can give me a bit of a boost It's the starting that is the hard bit!!

LOL, blitz the house my arse. I have spent the entire time lurking on MN and now it's time to go and pick up ds! Oh well, at least it was some "me time" which I get very little of.

I have also noticed that I am hardly hungry at all compared to being ravenous the whole time. And I have noticed that I need to pee much more! Presumably since the 200 cups of tea (decaf!) a day aren't going to make milk any more.

Our bodies are amazing really.

It's good if you can listen to your body and respond to what it's telling you. Some people just carry on eating the same amount out of habit. I noticed a drop in appetite when I stopped bf, too.

Yes, I can see exactly how easy it would be to keep scoffing out of habit. I lost around 15kgs of baby weight after ds was born, despite eating like it was going out of fashion. I am now lighter than I was pre ds, so it would be nice to keep it this way.

I am feeling a good bit better today I must say, and we have family coming round tomorrow for Fathers day, so I will be too busy to notice if I am cheesed off or not!