The Complete Process of Weaning My Second Baby

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Today we are going to take a look at my weaning journey with baby #2. 

A little background on my specific situation. My baby has been primarily directly nursed with breastmilk. I had a weekend in the hospital when my baby was 2 months old. At this time my husband had to bottle feed and we did have to use formula. I don’t particularly think this is relevant to my weaning experience but don’t want to say I 100% breastfed my baby when that is not the truth. 

Other than that hospital stay my baby drank breast milk straight off that tap, so that is all they knew. 

For more information on why I decided to directly breastfeed, check out The Top 17 Advantages of Direct Breastfeeding Over Bottle Feeding.

I am a part-time working mom, but my baby goes to work with me. I am essentially with them all day every day. So daycare is not playing a factor in my weaning journey. 

And finally, I want to touch on our sleep situation. We do not co-sleep or room share. During this weaning phase, they are in their room in a crib. They are no longer doing nighttime feeds. I choose to drop that first. I believe that ended at around 7 months.

Weaning Timeline

If you are ready to see my weaning progress, take a quick look at this chart.

On the far left we have my baby’s age in months. 

In the center, we have the number of nursing sessions during the day.

And on the far right we have random information about teeth, solids, and also when those final nursing sessions were taking place.

AM means first thing in the morning, once they are up for the day.

PM means within 15 minutes of bedtime.

With this baby, I often nursed them after a nap, rather than before it. I tried really hard to not make my baby reliant on milk to nap or sleep at night. 

If you look at the start they were 9 months old. They were nursing 5 times a day and eating solids about 4 times a day. The introduction of solids can be tricky. We started slowly around 6/7 months old. 

At ten months old not much had changed. I wasn’t trying to go crazy. I still wanted my baby to be getting plenty of milk until 12 months old. However, sometimes when you introduce solids your baby is less interested in milk.

At 11 months old we were working on getting on a simple schedule. We would nurse first thing in the morning. After each nap and then in the evening before bed. 

We finally made it to the full year. Now I realize plenty of moms go way beyond a year. I was ready to be done though. During this month we worked on going from 4 nurses to 3. The nurse I decided to drop was the nurse after the morning nap. I felt like this one was very doable because we could go straight to the table for lunch instead of nursing.

At 13 months we started transitioning out of daytime nursing. It got down to only AM and PM nurses. I think this was the hardest drop. To go essentially all day without the comfort of nursing was difficult.

At 14 months we were down to only the morning nursing session. With my first child, the last feed to drop was the nighttime feed. For some reason with my second child, I felt like the morning feed was more special or important to them. Maybe it is because my husband puts them to bed 50% of the time.

I was often the one to wake them up in the morning. 

I am not exactly sure, but we did end our breastfeeding journey with the morning feed last. 

As I got closer to dropping that final morning feed, I started adjusting it slightly. Instead of waking up and going straight to nursing, I tried slightly changing up the routine. I would instead get them dressed first and then nurse. 

I was trying to disconnect the association of waking up and immediately nursing.

Done Breastfeeding 

I didn’t realize my last nurse was my last nurse. Sometimes I regret this, but other times I was ok with it.

Basically, what happened is one day I nursed them in the morning. The next day my husband woke them up, got distracted by something in their room, got them dressed, and by the time they came out to see me they forgot about nursing.

I decided to roll with the opportunity and skip nursing that morning.

This resulted in me deciding we would officially be done. I don’t like to be wishy-washy with my children. I didn’t like the idea of nursing some mornings and skipping others. I just decided to make a clean break. 

I wish I would have gotten a picture of our last nurse. I really do. I am not the type of breast feeder to have a lot of pictures. I am pro-breastfeeding, but don’t post pictures or publicly advocate for it in that visual way. 

I don’t know if I have a single picture breastfeeding either of my children and that makes me sad.

Learn from my mistake and get that final picture. 

At some point, you have to be done. At some point, it is the last. My husband encouraged me to do one more day or one more week, if that is what I needed, but no matter the day I knew I would be sad. But I also knew I was ready to be done. You can be ready and still be sad.

You learn pretty quickly being a parent that you are constantly saying goodbye to a chapter and welcoming a new one. One day you are done with newborn diapers, you no longer use swaddles, they start walking, they quit wearing footie pajamas, and they move out of the crib.

We can’t keep them a little forever. We can be excited for what’s next, while still being sad about what is no longer. 

Physical Adjustments

With my final feed and the week to follow, I did not experience any pain or discomfort. I did not have engorgement of any kind. It was quite smooth.

When I weaned my first baby I did experience some engorgement at the end. So every journey is different, even if the momma is the same. 

If you do experience engorgement it is up to you how you handle it. You could try wearing the Haakaa for some relief or pumping a small amount of milk.

Don’t overdo it with pumping though or you will be telling your body to keep making milk.

There are also other methods to try to dry up more quickly such as cabbage leaves or taking certain medications. I did not do any of these methods so I cannot speak as to their effectiveness.

Solids and Cup

Before getting too far into your weaning journey I do want to remind you of the importance of solid foods and the introduction of a cup.  

Everything You Need to Know About Introducing Solid Food to Your Baby

You cannot take away milk without replacing it with a cup. Your baby needs to stay hydrated. 

You also need to make sure they are truly ready for solids and getting plenty down. If your baby is only playing with their food, just pushing it around and throwing it on the floor you need to continue to breastfeed them. 

They of course need adequate nutrition. 

When it comes to exactly when to introduce solids and when to wean from breastfeeding people are going to have very different opinions. I am not going to advocate for what I chose to do. I don’t know if I did everything exactly right. I am sure I did not. 

I am just a mom sharing my experience and how it went for me. 

I hope you can take bits of advice and do better than I did.

I just want to remind you that though you are ready to be done breastfeeding, you can’t rush the process. You need to put your baby first in making sure they are capable of weaning based on their ability to eat and drink from other sources.

Slow Weaning

I think the key to weaning is making it a slow process. Ideally, you are deciding to wean with a slow plan in place.

Now could there be a sudden reason to stop breastfeeding, of course, but that will make it more difficult on your body and your baby.

I think getting down to about 3 or 4 nurses throughout the day is pretty easy. It is those last few that are more difficult to drop.

My last 4 typically were related to sleep. They are of course the morning wake-up nurse and the evening before bed nurse. 

Aside from that you have naps. My baby was on two naps a day and nursed when they woke up. Yours may be the opposite and nurse before going down for a nap.

Either way, it is difficult to mess with naps. Naps are so important for our little ones.  

Take weaning slow and try to disrupt their schedule as little as possible. 

Conclusion

Weaning can be hard for both mom and baby. The key is to take it slow. Give each of you time to slowly adjust. Your body will slowly learn less demand means less supply is needed. 

Pay attention to your baby and how they are handling it. 

Check Out My Articles

How to Stop Breastfeeding and Gently Wean Your Baby

Everything You Need to Know About Introducing Solid Food to Your Baby

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