Hellobee Boards

I weaned my son at 14 months old and never offered him milk at bedtime, I think that’s up to you at that age. They don’t need anything then if they had a good dinner.

For yourself - I would try to only hand express. You can do pretty well taking the pressure off without doing too much. Emptying tells your body to keep making milk. You can also try things like sudafed (works for some but not everyone, but generally dries your body up) and cabbage leaves in your bra. Watch out for any lumps and try to massage them out (in a shower helps) to avoid mastitis.

Will he ask if you don’t offer? Sometimes that’s a way to ease into it. Even if he doesn’t feed at all the first night he might ask in a day or so, and you can decide as you go.

And just big hugs. My son weaned all the sudden during sleep training and I wasn’t ready and it broke my heart for a bit. But he’s 5 now and still the world’s biggest cuddle bug and I promise it will get better

@Umbreon: I think anytime is fine, and you will probably have some milk for a while even after it mostly calms down. It’s just a personal decision what works for you. If it were me I might pick a day in a few days to be the last day, and try to enjoy the last few times. But don’t make it hard and fast and if you decide you’re not ready, it’s ok. I thought I was going to be done nursing my third one night (she was 16m and had started to be too distracted to really do it) but I was still super sad about it even though we were both kind of ready. Two nights later or so she asked again and I let her nurse one more time and it was the last time, but somehow that one extra time really made me feel better. Just go with what feels right to you because it is a special and emotional thing

I would probably wait until you are not engorged with the once a day feeding. I had good luck with sudafed. I had the most engorgement when I weaned during the day, and was not that engorged when I finally weaned. I would avoid pumping if possible, that will tell your body to keep making milk. I am not prone to clogged ducts, though.

FWIW I felt very sad about weaning while weaning, but felt better about it after I had weaned.