Stopped Breastfeeding. Sad but w/a sense of accomplishment!
Well... I've stopped breastfeeding. I've had issues with my supply ever since I started working back in January. Since then, I've tried everything to maintain my supply... You name it, I tried it.. 'Nursing vacations', Fenugreek, Domperidone, Reglan, increased pumping/nursing.. Lots of water/healthy foods to increase my calories.. Avoiding anything that was rumored to decrease your supply.. All of it. It worked, but it was becoming so stressful. I even tried talking to a psychologist for stress/anxiety so that I wouldn't psych myself out about it!! Now that my son began solids, he began nursing less and less and it became too much.. All of the stress of keeping my supply up (20 pills a day + pumping at least 3 times at work), while making sure he was getting enough milk in his bottle.. Plus he refused to take formula and I'm convinced it was because of the taste. Formula tastes awful compared to breastmilk. He refused so many types of formula.
I heard of a little trick of adding just a few drops of vanilla to formula to sweeten it just a tad. I tried that and began slowly introducing the formula to his bottles of breastmilk and he took it. After 2 weeks, he was able to take a whole bottle just fine. I can't tell you how relieved I am to know that he is now getting enough formula instead of struggling to get a little milk from me. Sure enough, I stopped taking the pills and BAM my milk supply pretty much disappeared. I'm almost already dried up and he's only been on strictly formula since Friday.
So I'm a little sad because I wanted to make it to 1 year.. but I'm damn proud of everything I've done to keep it up as long as I did. Jordan will be 9 months on Saturday. Saturday is also the national 'Latch On' event, so I'm sad that I won't get to participate, but I think I'll go anyway. I'm still a huge advocate for breastfeeding. Anybody who has questions about milk supply or needs reviews on different vitamins/prescriptions, feel free to ask!
Just wanted to share my experience. I received a lot of good Breastfeeding advice through Pregly. You guys really helped me along the way.
I heard of a little trick of adding just a few drops of vanilla to formula to sweeten it just a tad. I tried that and began slowly introducing the formula to his bottles of breastmilk and he took it. After 2 weeks, he was able to take a whole bottle just fine. I can't tell you how relieved I am to know that he is now getting enough formula instead of struggling to get a little milk from me. Sure enough, I stopped taking the pills and BAM my milk supply pretty much disappeared. I'm almost already dried up and he's only been on strictly formula since Friday.
So I'm a little sad because I wanted to make it to 1 year.. but I'm damn proud of everything I've done to keep it up as long as I did. Jordan will be 9 months on Saturday. Saturday is also the national 'Latch On' event, so I'm sad that I won't get to participate, but I think I'll go anyway. I'm still a huge advocate for breastfeeding. Anybody who has questions about milk supply or needs reviews on different vitamins/prescriptions, feel free to ask!
Just wanted to share my experience. I received a lot of good Breastfeeding advice through Pregly. You guys really helped me along the way.
Comments
thanks everyone
I'm trying to get my LO to take at least 16oz of whole milk a day so I think I might start putting vanilla in her milk to see if she takes it. Do you give you LO cold Or warm milk @alilboulding