Weaning - Albuquerque, NM

I was amazed how quickly my son forgot about breast feeding. I started giving him bottles, because I too had to be gone for a few days, and he figured it out really quick. You are going to want to pump some while you are gone because you get so engorged. A heating pad is helpfull for the soreness too.

I tried nursing my son about a week after he was done and he refused so I had to pump every now and then just to relieve the pressure. Other than that I didn't really have any problems. My son was a little younger than yours and he did fine.

At his very young age, weaning will be difficult for EVERYONE involved. Even dad! I would encourage you to not wean or only expect to wean down to less feedings, but not entirely. If you DO want to pursue it, contact LLL or a lactation consultant to help you. If are not fully dedicated to weaning, don't. Pump and pump some more and when you return, your daughter will be more than happy to re-establish your supply and nursing relationship.

Do you want to do wean your child or is it simply because you will be away for a week, that you want to wean him?

If it is the latter, you can take a pump with you and pump, while away, to keep up your milk supply. That way, you can resume nursing when you return.

Also, pump before and freeze it for baby. One of my babies didn't want to nurse for a week, for whatever reason, and then he wanted to again later. I didn't want to stop nursing so I pumped to keep up my milk supply.

A great resource for FACTS for you is La Leche League. They can advise you on what the best way to stop, if that is what you want to do, along with a multitude of other q's you may have about breast-feeding.

Oh no! Can you store your milk by freezing it!!! I have heard of doing that. You would have to pump a lot before your trip, and pump and dump during your trip to keep production up. But to me, being able to continue BF is a wonderful thing. You could even use fenugreek to try to boost capacity when you return from your trip if your production has dropped.

If you are going to wean, I would do it far in advance of your work trip. When I weaned, it wasn't as horribly painful as I'd heard other mom's talk about but it did hurt and I know that I was in a bit of a grumpy mood during the process because I just didn't feel "good". You're so close to the one year mark that I would try and hang in there even if it meant you had to pump and dump on your trip (as hard as that can be!).

How long until your trip? I dropped one feeding a month for about 4 months, once he was down to just that many feedings, and my body adjusted beautifully. When I really, really needed to, I'd pump for just a couple of minutes to relieve the fullness but not much because it will give your body the signal that you want to make more milk.

If you dont completely want to wean try and pump as much as you can before you leave. Maybe whoever is watching your baby can feed her brest milk and switch with formula.
I did that for my baby when I went out of town. When I was gone, I would pump and through what ever I had down the drain so that I wouldnt dry up. My mom gave my daughter my milk and would supliement with formula at night time.
Or that might be the best time to wean. A friend of mine went out of town for a weekend and weaned her son. Just remember you will be in pain!