Weaned!

Yep! Once I couldn’t imagine it but now it has come and passed. I am no longer nursing. The “baby” was weaned at 34 months just after Chinese New Year. (Yes, I know that was in January  but I really didn’t have any time to blog )

I have been nursing since April 1998. Not long but not short either I usually get a break from nursing in the 2nd and 3rd trimester of the next pregnancy.

The shortest a child had nursed weas exactly 12 months. The longest, 34 months. They tend to wean around 14 to 15 months because that would be the around the time I hit the 2nd trimester of the next pregnancy

I can’t do the nursing through a pregnancy thing. It drives me nuts to nurse during a pregnancy. The longest I have held on was with child #3 as he was only 6 months when I got pregnant with #4. I made my deal with God that He must give me enought milk to nurse him till he turned one. He weaned on his own the day he turned one. Amazing answer of God

The rest I would actively encourage them to wean once I hit the 2nd trimester of the next pregnancy. I think by then my milk supply dips really low because I can suddenly feel them suckling really hard and it hurts and makes my skin crawls!

So with our youngest, she was blessed to have nursed the longest ever Weaning her however was easy. She had been down to just nursing to twice a day – to go to sleep at nap and bedtimes.

I was willing to keep nursing her till she started taking forever to nurse to sleep! At least 45 min to an hour! I just couldn’t take it anymore. So I started unlatching her after 5 minutes and told her to go to sleep. And she did! So I figured that since she doesn’t need to nurse to sleep she can wean

So I just took the plunge and prepped her the night before that “tonight is the last time you get your “merk merk”. The next day when I told her that there wasn’t anymore “merk merk” she just whined a little and went to sleep!

And no, I am not pregnant – well, not this month

Now if only getting her to sleep on her own without me needing to be in the room with her would be that easy!

Breastfeeding and sacrifices

When I started breastfeeding more than 11 years ago, I didn’t know the sacrifices I had to make. And today I am still making the same sacrifices 11 years down the road

All I knew back then was that I had to breastfeed given both dh’s and my family’s history of allergies. And it never occured to me that it could be a difficult journey, especially in the beginning. Afterall, how difficult can it be to just put the baby to the breast?

Ha! How ignorant and foolish I was even though I had done all my reading on it. Nothng beats real life experience, I say!

After nursing 7 children, I can with some authority that the early days of nursing almost always repeats itself. However, being more experienced, the early days are handled differently and with more equanimity. But it does not mean that I like them any better!

Here are some of the more unpleasant stuff that many proponents of breastfeeding seldom mention:

Engorgement

If you nurse regularly in the 1st few days, one shouldn’t be severly engorged. Note : key word is “severely”. There’ll still be a feeling of fullness as the milk comes in. And even if you do escape that feeling in the early days, once the baby goes slightly longer between feeds you’ll definitely feel it!

It can be rather uncomfortable especially if you like to lie on your side or tummy!

Leaks

With my 1st bb, I leaked for about 6 months! With subsequent babies, once I passed the 1st month I almost never leaked. However, with my 7th, I didn’t leak at all till she stretched out her feedings at about 5 weeks. Then I leaked majorly. Cloth breastpads just couldn’t absorb the leaks. I had to use my trusty Pigeon disposable breastpads.

Even till today, at 9 weeks post partum I am still leaking though less often. So I am back to using my cloth pads.

Being on call 24/7

Since Iam a SAHM, I don’t express any milk for the baby but latch on directly. So that means baby is with me 24hrs, 7 days a week. Where I go, baby comes with me. Well – for now at least till she is able to go longer without her milk or starts taking solids.

But it can get tiring since there’s no break. And worse still if she needs to nurse to go to sleep!

Diet restrictions

Ahhh!!! This would be my biggest bugbear. With my last 3 babies, I can’t eat/drink anything caffeinated or they would be so miserable and/or be awake in the middle of the night! They are very sensitive to caffeine – even in utero!

Interestingly with my 1st 4, I could drink as much coffee/tea as I wanted and not feel nauseous but not so with the last 3. Just 1 cup of diluted tea would make me very nauseous. And when these babies were born, I still couldn’t drink any caffeinated drinks or these sweet babies would keep me up all night! And indulging in chocolate after the babies go to bed at night? No way. They would not be able to settle down and sleep and be very miserable.

And with a few of them, I’ve had to also keep off dairy in the 1st 6 months or they would be extremely gassy and spit up a lot. And I know some moms who’ve had to keep off a long list of foods to keep their babies happy and healthy.

 

I write this post not to elevate myself but to salute all breatfeeding moms. It takes a lot of commitment and sheer grit and will power to do it. I know quite a few moms who pressed on despite bleeding and being sore. And then there are those, who did not give up even though people around them, including doctors,  keep on dissuading them from continuing due to repeated mastitis attacks.

Even though breastfeeding is a lot more common and accepted now, it is still not mainstream. Many just pay lip service to its goodness. In fact, the moms that I roomed with at the hospital after birth, all except 1 gave formula to their newborn babies

Women who breastfeed are a special lot!

Spitting Up Everywhere

This baby, like her 4 other siblings, spit up A LOT. So much that we always joke that we should have invested in some Kleenex shares

She spits up after each mursing session. Yes, we burp her. She still spits up A LOT. No, I am not exaggerating. I constantly smell of her spit up. Well, that’s what everyone around me tells me since I have long since been de-senstised by it all and I don’t have enough t-shirts to change into.

What causes it you may ask? I have no answers. Only suspicions.

Suspicion #1

My overactive letdown. This means that at letdown, my milk flows very fast and very strongly leading to the baby gulping it down instead of drinking it at a leisurely pace. This could cause gassiness which in turn causes her to spit up the milk. Burping her only relieves the situation a little.

This is one reason why I can’t nurse lying down with her since I always have to burp her after each nursing session.

Suspicion #2

Dairy products. She could be sensitive to dairy products. So for now, I am avoiding them in all forms (milk, butter, cream, cheese, milo, etc…) to see if it helps her.

Suspicion #3

Overeating. Her, not me She nurses all the time and this of course leads to an overly full stomach

Eventually they outgrow it. Some as late as 7 months, others as early as 5 months. Meanwhile, get the tissues ready!

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Articles for Christian SAHMs can be found at Building Up Moms.

Hungry all the time!

Breastfeeding consumes lots of calories and one of the ways to entice new moms to persevere or at least try breastfeeding is to let them know that breastfeeding helps one lose one’s post partum weight much faster than if one didn’t breastfeed.

But that’s not the point I am making with this post.

I just want to say I am hungry ALL the time! I guess it doesn’t help that the little one is nursing every 1.5 to 2 hrs round the clock.

I guess if I were disciplined enough to control the urge to eat, I could lose my pregnancy weight real fast. But…nah! Life’s too short and I’m too ill-disciplined!

And no, please don’t tell me that it would all be ok if I were to snack on healthy snacks. What is a snack if it ain’t rich, creamy and chocolately???

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Articles for Christian SAHMs can be found at Building Up Moms.