Breastfeed Weaning

So long overdue but better late than never.  I wanted to document my journey so I would have a reference for the next time around.  Everything I read online stated that other moms stopped breastfeeding and poof two days later felt fine.  However, that was not my experience at all.

I set my goal to stop at eight months.  I had stored enough milk to last me some time. But eight months came and went and here I was still pumping away. Then we hit Christmas and I swore I was done after that, but we planned a vacation to Florida over New Year's and I knew better than to start the process then. Here I am ten months postpartum and continually putting off the weaning process but at the same time completely over the daily grind of pumping every 4-5 hours.  I will admit I am the absolute worst person at water consumption and while the back and forth on when to stop was going on I was training for my first 1/2 marathon.  So my body took over and started to produce less milk due to dehydration when my miles increased, which I took as a sign that it was a means to an end. 

I went from pumping four times a day to first thing in the morning and right before bed at night.  This schedule continued for about two weeks.  I figured I had weaned enough that I could just stop since I hadn't been filling up anymore.  I was now only two weeks away from my 1/2 and eleven months postpartum.  There was not a chance in hell I would lug my pump down to Disney for this race, and I was ready to be done.

As mentioned previously, the info I found online seemed to be extremely sugarcoated.  Mothers on forums were mentioning that days 2-5 were the worst but then engorgement subsided.  I was fully engorged for two whole weeks.  So much so that I could not lift my daughter or hold her b/c the mere touching of anything to my chest brought tears to my eyes. And running was completely out of the question, not the best timing I know.  Finally I called the lactation consultant from my hospital who was wonderful and confirmed I was doing all the right things - cold compresses, avoiding warm water in the shower, restrict movement, pain medicine and express small amounts for pressure relief.  She even suggested the old wives tale of cold cabbage leaves in your bra.  She made an insightful point that if my body had been lactating for eleven months, it simply couldn't turn off a switch and stop producing cold turkey.  Everything takes time and patience is necessary.  Lucky for me, I felt completely back to normal just days before leaving for the race.