Weaned

Well, our second attempt at weaning went much better than the first, which ended after 1 day. We went cold turkey, for a variety of reasons. Basically, he was pissed. I held him and still am, a lot, a lot, a lot. Everyday he's gotten less clingy over it, every day he's become more accepting when I say there are no more "Milkies". He's stopped signing for it, or laying himself down and digging under my shirts, but I still catch him looking or patting on my chest, the precursor to the former 2 behaviors. At night, it takes a simple rocking to get him to forget he's hungry...gees, I didn't even notice that he slept through the night with out waking once last night!

I thought the physical pain would go on longer than it did. I had a convenient cold, so the decongestants helped. I was mildly hormonal, I think. It could have just been mommy guilt, but I have less of the feeling now than I did last week, so I'm thinking it was hormones. We've had an absolutely crazy week, so I think being distracted by that has helped as well. The 2nd night in, we ordered pizza, and the 3rd included fish fry, both containing dairy, so nursing was out anyway. I think if I hadn't done that, I probably would have caved, especially with the night feedings, and the early morning ones. 

I miss it to some extent, and still wish it could continue, like I said, at night or in the early mornings when it's convenient, but babies aren't conveniences;), and I have to follow his rules. The whole bonding thing I miss too, but we have other ways to accomplish that. He's growing more already, on solids, 6.5 oz. in a week! woot! 

My Body Back

48 Hours in...he's still off the sauce. Pizza was amazing! I miss lazy mornings in bed though.

I thought this whole weaning thing was monumental because I had accomplished BFing longer than the average mother, and longer than I had initially intended. I realized last night, it's much bigger. For nearly 2 years, I haven't had my body. Pregnancy is just weird, with hormones and all the internal changes, externally visible changes, and the fact that I felt like I was incubating and alien...not literally. Monsters are different from aliens, like comparing werewolves to vampires, duh. Then with all the restrictions on caffeine, diet, and most of all BEER, once he was out, and all the ways feeding kind of forced me to stop life and sit while he ate...oye!

So the point is, I can eat, drink, and "BE" what I want, when I want, and it's not gonna hurt nobody nohow.

On a side note: I highly recommend no one goes cold turkey unless they think they really have to. It's not a very comfortable time.

Every New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginning's End

Did you ever end your week in some other "place" than where you started it, and it was a place you never would have guessed? (I envision you, Melissa, nodding at that one, though this doesn't compare.) After a quick Dr.'s appointment on Thursday, to realize that Monster weighs the same as he did back in September (so much for running out to get the new car seat when we did, by law, we still don't need it), we discovered we needed to make some changes. It was decided that we should stop breastfeeding and we'd be doing this cold turkey. I kind of remove myself from the decision in saying it was decided for me. It's  a bitter sweet ending to an interesting practice.

BFing, started out so hard, I almost gave it up. Then it clicked and it had it's conveniences and annoyances.  No bottles to lug, however I can't just whip out a breast like I can a bottle, especially in front of my students! It's cheaper by far, and I have a lot of control over it, no recalls to deal with. But S's constant desire to feed, especially recently, had become too much. Regardless I was committed to the long haul and willing to wait for him to wean himself (within reason). It gave me more time to sleep as he just needed to lay beside me, it took away foods I loved. It was the best of times...it was the wort of times...you get it.

Monster's lack of weight gain...how the hell he got that being a member of our family, I have no clue!!... and other potential issues related to BFing and his health that are still left undiscovered, have lead me to wean. The Doc and I agreed that I probably should go for cold turkey for a few reasons I'll not go into here...though if you're BFing and want personal stories or support I'm learning from this, feel free to comment and I'll be in touch. I'll probably post the process, sorry family, it's a record to help others, hopefully. So, it has been an interesting 24 hours. He won't let go of me, like a child playing tag who is on base via "electricity". He's not happy, but he's been oddly accepting at times when I thought we weren't going to make it (like cry fest 2011, last night). Sean rocked him to sleep for the first time (yay poppa!) and I really felt good not having to be the one solving his problems. He refuses to drink anything besides juice, but for now, that's OK. I'm trying all the tricks I can come up with to get him to drink various milks. He's too savvy. If we can get him off a new born's feeding schedule for solids, I'd be much happier. That is a battle for the future though.

The Doc said things should settle after 3-4 days. We're just starting into day 2...but tonight, is pizza night!! Just like in elementary school! I can't wait. It will be a nice finish to a rather awful Friday and it seals the weaning deal, as I won't be able to BF for two weeks. Maybe I can get some real ice cream going on as well...I have so much lost dairy time to make up for.

Leaving the elimination diet behind is also kind of weird. Soon, I'll have to be hyper diligent about what is in the house and how close it can get to S, but I won't have to watch what I eat so closely. I plan on steering clear of a lot of dairy, since it's has really pulled the off with absolutely no effort.

So here's to leaving the infant Stefan behind, for the new solids only Toddler with a Mama who has the weight of elimination diets lifted. Cheers!