Weaning... maybe...

[courts&munchkins]

After 7.5 months of very painful and stressful breastfeeding I feel like I am ready to wean dd. The stress is doing me no good and I am turning into the mother ***** from hell. DD has had a bottle at night for some time and takes it easily so I thought weaning would be fairly straight forward but no little miss refuses to take a bottle during the day and just cries until I give her boobie which makes me feel bad, like I am making the wrong decision. So I guess if I decide to go through with this I need some tips on how to make the process fairly easy on us both. What's the best way I can wean my booby monster so she will still feel like I am here for her always.

I am really struggling with the guilt of the possibility of weaning because I know I am doing this for me and not for her, (she loves booby) but I am just not sure how much more I can handle. I don't know how to get through the guilt really.

[PumpkinZulu]

I have no advice (but many other people will!) but I just wanted to say congratulations on feeding for the 7.5 months you have That's awesome, don't forget that!

[Kmn]

I found that to get my DS to take bottles when I returned to work I had to make the situation as un-boob-like as possible.
For DS that was with him lying on a cushion on the floor or sitting in his chair, and for him to "give himself" the bottle.
As soon as he was held then everything was telling him it was boob-time and he felt short-changed.

Try making things a bit weird and see if it helps.

And huge congratulations for feeding Piper as long as you have.

[onthefly]

m2boys
Take it slow, replacing just one feed per week if you can. Distraction can sometimes help, or even getting someone else to give the bottles.
The ABA will have some advice also.
If you take it slow, maybe you'll find a balance where you're ok to continue, but just not feeding as much as you were? You have done a marvelous job, in any event, so I hope you can let go of that guilt

[courts&munchkins]

Yeah I certainly plan on going slow. I don't want to rush it, give her time to adjust and myself as well. I want to keep night and early morning feeds at the very least for now.

I think I might get her dad to try and give her a bottle during the day so she just gets used to the concept of a bottle during the day.

I think if I could even get her to take 2 bottles a day and the rest booby it might take the pressure off me a little.