Last night Siena would not sleep (or stop kicking and flailing) until I had her on a breast... She was LITERALLY on me from 8pm to 5am. This is all because I decided last week (after recovering from a horrible breast infection) that I would start to wean. Siena is not having any of that shiz.
I am at my wits end here. Somebody advise me! My nipples feel like they have a million paper cuts on them :( If I try waiting until she is "ready to wean herself" she will be in kindergarten and I will be leaving work in the middle of the day to breast feed her at school. FU#% THAT PEOPLE! (no offence to people who breast feed for a long time, but I am in pain and still have Siena waking up every 1 to 2 hours all night every night for milk!)
Aww Deb that sounds awful!
ReplyDeleteI wish I had advice for you.
Deb, when I read this I immediately forced Tyler to read it too, since it's like you ripped this from my brain!! I just started researching weaning since my nipples are torn to shreds right now and nursing feels like some kind of evil torture! My doctor started me on some creams to hopefully heal me.. (fingers crossed) But I've decided that Adessa needs to start to stop... Last night I actually stood at her crib and waited for her to settle to sleep since I could not fathom having her nurse....
ReplyDeleteLa leche league recommends following the "dont' offer, don't refuse" although, I don't think I've "offered" since Adessa was newborn. haha. Oh well.. I'm looking into some methods and such. I'll let you know if I make some progress.....
Duct tape??
ReplyDeleteHaha Carleigh that's so funny!
ReplyDeleteGo cold turkey. She'll hate you for a few hours- maybe a day but then she'll get over it. You can tell her that the milk is all done because she's grown up now. Try giving her a new stuffie or a 'big girl cup' or even a special drink she hasn't had like chocolate milk or orange juice or something.
Kids get over things really quickly- it's us who have a hard time with the guilt feelings!
When I weaned we basically did the whole daddy weekend thing. You have to be MIA for a day or so. It will be hard for a few days/nights, but eventually it will get better. Do you give her a bottle? She could have one to go to sleep with (this is not difficult to break later) so that she can calm herself down with the bottle when she wakes up at night. And because she's eating more solid foods, you can keep her full with milk and food instead of breast milk.
ReplyDeleteFor your nipples, I really liked the Lansinoh brand lanolin cream. I found that it helped so much, in like a day! You can get it at London drugs and Shoppers I think.
Good luck hun!
Hi everyone thank you for all of your wonderful tips! I have cut Siena off of the day feeds since this post which is difficult but she's adjusting, I just distract her or someone takes her away to look at something else! Since every time she sits on my lap she pulls my top down I haven't done much cuddling with her... Which is really sad for both of us.
ReplyDeleteNight time feeding is still going strong... She's still in our bed and to be honest I don't think she will ever be comfortable in her own bed. She does go in it for the first part of the night but as soon as she senses one of us in the room it's about 15 minutes before she wakes up screaming! The other night I tried to let her cry but she got so worked up that she threw up everywhere :(
My mom bought us the fisher price fish tank and she is warming to it... She asks for "fishies!" when in her bedroom but if we leave her to watch it for too long she does the no breathe cry.
I wish we could do the cry out method but I think we may be past that point now. We will have to try it when my parents are away since my dad is still working I wouldn't like to disturb him all night with a screaming Siena!
Thanks again everyone, it's great to have so many great friends and great advice!!
Duct tape and/or lemon juice are next on my agenda!