Two nights ago when I went to feed Brex, he took a few sips then flung himself away from me and started to cry in protest. I'd taken a shower with a new soap, so I shrugged and made him a bottle. He grabbed it and chugged away and then finished with a big grin. He might as well have wiped his mouth with his sleeve and rasped out, "Thanks, Sugar!"
The next morning, he fed as usual at 5 AM. Then for his 8:30 AM feeding again he arched his back and flung himself away from me. Even when I tried to wrestle him into position, he just screamed and glared at me instead of eating. I glared back. When I picked him up to go downstairs to make a bottle, he stopped crying. No fussing at all while I made the bottle. Again he leaned back in my arms and lounged away as he held and chugged his bottle. Jrex had speculated that the formula tasted sweet? As an experiment, I took one bottle of formula and one of breastmilk to daycare. I asked later if he'd had trouble with one of the bottles? No.
Same thing that night. This morning. Tonight.
This evening, I fed him breastmilk in the bottle, just to repeat the experiment. Happy as a clam. In fact, he tried out every position he could drink from: leaning back against my body, sitting next to me, back arched over my legs, sitting up on my legs and facing me as he drank and finally chugging the last two ounces on the changing table. He might as well have been saying out loud, "I DO. NO, Mommy, I DO!" I have no idea where he might have inherited an independent streak!
This can't be unheard of, but I've never heard of a baby just weaning cold turkey. Is this a sign of things to come?
At 5 AM this morning, Brex almost started normal feeding, but then he seemed to remember it was against his principles. More screaming. Jrex came in to make sure we were ok and I asked him to give the baby formula while I pumped. Of course, the irony is that Jrex complained later about how tired he was from the interrupted sleep.
Ya think?
I'm not bitter, just amused since I've done all the night stuff with only as-needed emergency interventions from Jrex. It seemed silly to me to wake Jrex up just to change the diaper in between sides. Well, I guess he'll be joining the rest of the family for our early feeding now! (Really, I have SO much sympathy for Jrex in this matter. Can't you tell?)
The true bummer is that I'd been looking forward to giving up pumping and just having the morning and evening feedings. Then I'd assumed we'd have a ceremonial day when at long last, breastfeeding was over. Apparently Brex is reading from a different script!
I know, I know. It's in the official rulebook for parenting that just when you think you have something figured out, the kid shifts to something new. One part of me wants to try to fight to save the breastfeeding, that part also feels like I should be grieving now. I keep trying to dredge up the grief, but it's maybe 1/7th of my brain. The rest of me is just happy to not have to figure out the weaning process. Brush my hands together and move ON!
I guess that means the real title for this post is "That was easy. Strange, yes. But definitely easy."
5 comments:
Your baby is too cute. I just want to kiss him and snuggle him and be his friend. (I have nothing to say about BFing, as I've never done it, but it sounds like you're handling things with aplomb. You go, mama!)
It is pretty common for them to act like they want to wean around 9 months, but if you can get through a few weeks of this, he'll come back to it. I just went through this with my son, who is 11 months. I could only nurse him in one quiet place in the house. He would fight me otherwise. Right after they wake from a nap is also a good time, when they are still half asleep. It gets better again though.
My oldest started doing this around 6 months. She self-weaned. Then one night when she was about 8 months old, she crawled up into my lap and wanted to nurse again. Needless to say, I couldn't help her out!
It really depends on whether you want to continue nursing. I later learned this is called a "nursing/breastfeeding strike." Sometimes it happens when they are teething, and sometimes it happens when they are being fed rice or solids. Sometimes, there's no reason at all. If you want to keep nursing, even if only in the mornings and evenings, you'll need to keep pumping to keep your supply up. If not, then let it go.
I hear ya on the independent streek. Good luck with that. ;-)
I loved nursing my kids and I loved it when they didn't want to nurse anymore. I was just ready.
Both girls quit cold turkey right when they turned 9m. I couldn't ever get them to nurse, they just screamed so i pumped a few weeks and was done. Jackson however is still wanting to nurse morning and evening at almost 11 months now so i'm not sure what the difference was/is?! But i've been there :)
~ Rebecca
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