It’s been about a week or so since my boobs have been breastmilk free and let me tell you, I am one liberated woman! Not only that, my weaning experience was far easier than my breastfeeding one and I’m honestly shocked. Through reading several articles about weaning and transitioning to combination feeding, I found some very helpful boob-saving advice that made a night and day difference in my experience.
The most A+++ advice I read was, if you’ve struggled with oversupply, wean by volume, not by pump time. Most weaning articles you will read will talk about weaning slowly by typically reducing pump times and/or dropping pumping sessions. For me, I was already down to three sessions a day and still producing 50+ oz so dropping sessions wasn’t exactly doing the job. Not only that, if I had dropped another session I was pretty positive I would block up to the size of balloons – and with having to work, that would not end well for me.
Luckily in the midst of all my research, I came across this one blog post (very sad I can’t find it again!) that actually identified a difference in weaning for women who have oversupply vs the average. The most consistent advice I found was if you have the ability to, wean VERY slowly. Your boobs will thank you. While there are instances where some women need to stop abruptly, it’s strongly recommended that you avoid cutting cold turkey because it will be a very painful process. My mom actually did this when she had me (mostly because she didn’t have any support or anyone advising her otherwise) and she said it was absolutely miserable. She recalled sitting in bed crying in the middle of the night with icepacks across her chest. So my advice to anyone looking into weaning, plan ahead so you can make your starting point far enough in advance to wean slowly and still be done by your desired end date.
My goal was to be completely finished by the time baby turned six months and because I struggled so much with blockages and engorgement, I was giving myself about a month to get it done so I could go as slow as necessary. Day one, I started by dropping my pumping volume from roughly 20oz per pump to 12oz. This was going to be my biggest jump but it was a solid first step to getting the ball rolling. They say it takes about 2-3, sometimes 3-4, days for your boobs to adjust their supply. For a few days my boobs were very full and fairly sore but some mild pain meds were keeping me comfortable enough. Another major tip of advice I have is to find a full coverage sports bra. When you are trying to promote supply, they recommend wearing a non-constricting bra and no underwire but when you are trying to dry up your supply, it’s recommended you wear a tighter top for support. I found for me that it is crucial to find a bra that is truly full coverage. I used a double layered Victoria’s Secret sports bra that had one layer as a front clip full coverage underwire bra and the second being a front zip sports coverage (see image). I don’t believe VS carries this style anymore but I think some other brands may. Other bras I tried included a standard pull over and latch in the back sports bra and a full support front zip one. Because my boobs engorged anyway and the weaning having them particularly aggravated, any bra that didn’t provide a full coverage “shape” to my boobs caused me to block up wherever there was pressure from the bra. For example, the maximum support front zip smooshed my boobs together so they blocked up on the inside. The pull over had a lower top line so that made the top of my boobs block up. This may not be the case for everyone but as far as comfort is concerned, bra choice had major impact.
Once my boobs adjusted to the initial volume drop, I started just decreasing an ounce at a time. It usually only took a couple days for my body to adjust to this so the ball was rolling. All of a sudden I noticed my body started slowing production naturally and any blockages were disappearing on their own after the couple day adjustment period. I literally sat there and thought, “Well hell, if I had just done this forever ago, maybe I would have had a much more manageable supply and I wouldn’t have burnt myself out so fast.” But here was my issue – when I first started breastfeeding and was dealing with the engorgement and oversupply, I did read about cutting your supply and it involved a degree of “weaning”. So I gave it a shot and literally got mastitis within days and that was my last attempt with that. Also another warning is that, just like I experienced, sometimes when you try and cut your supply, your body will cut back more than you wanted and now you’re having to deal with having to re-establish the supply you need. Then you’re really in a bind. So maybe I could have made it work if I had tried again later on, maybe it wouldn’t have. But as far as the weaning was concerned, it was pretty amazing to watch my body make the adjustments all on its own!
As the weeks went on, I just kept dropping ounce by ounce. A couple weeks in and things going smoothly, I decided to drop my “morning” pump and just do two a day on a 12 hour schedule (11am and 11pm). This surprisingly went well! Once again, just a few days to adjust and we kept on plugging away at it. Next thing I knew, I was dropping the midday pump and then poof! Away went the last session. Typically your supply takes about 8-10 days to fully dry up. I continued to wear the sports bra for two weeks post dropping my last pump just to be on the safe side. After two weeks, I slept without a bra for the first time in six months. Hallelujah, thank you sweet baby Jesus! My little boobies were so happy to be free at last. Over the next few days I did have some very minor leaks. I read that this is super normal and some women can leak for months or even years after weaning from breastfeeding (how lucky of us). Mine typically happened when I carried baby and he applied pressure. But that only lasted for a few days and I haven’t had any since.
As grateful as I am to have my normal boobs back, at a slightly smaller size (yay for me), the hormonal changes were the really challenging issue. On average, a woman burns about 800 calories a day in breastfeeding. Because I was producing over double the amount of milk in one day, I was cranking out a ton of calories. In the first two weeks of weaning, I put on a whopping TEN POUNDS. Holy guacamole, no one told me about this. You know when you’re pregnant and they’re selling the benefits of breastfeeding to you and one of them is getting back to your postpartum weight quicker? Yeah, that’s all good and well until you stop breastfeeding. The next fun adjustment is getting your period again. While you are breastfeeding, your body is busy producing prolactin (the hormone that produces breastmilk) so it doesn’t produce the hormones needed to have your period. However, once you start weaning, your body stops producing the prolactin which then means period hormones start revving their engines again. I’ve heard some horror stories about your first postpartum period being just awful so I was a little worried and because I wasn’t on a month to month schedule anymore, I had no idea when Flo would strike. Ironically she came to visit on the exact same schedule I was on prior to getting pregnant and it was totally normal. Thanks girl, I appreciate that.
So all in all, my experience was surprisingly smooth and I am feeling better than ever with having at least normal boobs. I’m still having to work on shedding the extra pounds but that will come. Hopefully if you are looking to start weaning that these little tid bits help you! Happy weaning!
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article sponsered by Northern Michigan certified lactation consulting and Mother Hubbards Country Cupboard
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