The W(hoa!)onders of Weaning

 
Note: It is quite likely that this post will be TMI for many of you (Tim), but I wrote it because whenever I looked up advice about weaning on the internet everyone seemed to be talking about it like it was a piece of cake, and to me: it was not.  Enjoy at your own discretion!

It was so nice and gradual at first.  As Aeli began to eat more and more regular human food, he naturally nursed fewer times a day, and it was pretty easy to go from multiple feedings a day to only breastfeeding at night.  I felt that this slow, steady decrease in milk demand was perfect: the pace was being set by Aeli, and it was convenient for me to oblige.

However- going to fewer feedings a day is not the same as stopping completely. 

Whoa, boy.

I would sometimes try to go through the whole night without nursing, but I was usually woken up by the painful ache of a breast the size and shape of a dimpled pomelo.  Stefin would go get A, and even just nursing for three minutes would ease the pain.

But how do you erase those three minutes?  I just couldn't wrap my brain around it.  Even if Aeli ate less and less, one feeding would always tell my body to keep on producing one feeding's worth of milk- so how do you totally cease?

The doctor said to put frozen peas on my boobs a few times a day and wear the tightest sports bra I could find.  She assured me that in a few days it would all be done.  "They'll get the idea," she said.

A few days schma schmew days!  Seven days, is more like it.  And pain was part of the process.  Some people wear lots of lacy lingerie on their honeymoon; I wore frozen vegetables and a sports bra.

But now- at last- (hurrah!) I am wearing regular chest support!  Not nursing anymore (bittersweet), and feeling my hormones and appetite get back to pre-pregnancy levels for the first time in 16 + 9 months!  Pretty amazing.  (Sidenote soon-to-be-mommies: if you like to eat: NURSE!  I thoroughly enjoyed my 600 extra daily calories.  Now, though, I can enjoy not becoming famished during a 4 hour shift at work.)

 So we're all growing up around here.  Aeli says "eee u" (p.u.- on the changing table); "uh-oh" (after he throws something on the floor and then shrugs his shoulders); "hot" (always whispered- with a hand gesture at fire, candles, pans on the stove, barbecues...), and follows a surprising number of verbal directions... I'm feeling more like a regular human and less like a clogged faucet... and Stefin and I had our WEDDING!  Though it's been a legal union for quite some time now, we finally made it ceremonially official with the presence of our family and friends.  (That week deserves a post of its own.)


One more hip hip hooray for boobies (and babies)!