Transitions: Bottle & Pump Weaning
Kairo went to his first dentist appointment the day he turned 16 months old. He had 8 teeth at the time with 2 on the way. This is pretty early to take a baby to the dentist, but I wanted to make sure we were practicing proper hygiene. After Kairo won the hearts of everyone in the building (as usual), we learned that we were “behind” in the bottle weaning process. That’s right, at 16 months old, Kairo was still drinking milk from a bottle and barely using a sippy cup.
In this moment, I could’ve blamed myself for delaying his development in this area, but instead I chose to extend grace to myself. I had known for months that we needed to start the bottle weaning process, but bottles were just working so well for us at the time! They helped him go to sleep at night, they were his comfort first thing in the morning, and it was convenient to serve him milk in the same container I pumped into. I really was doing my best to keep our lives and routines easy when it came to consuming milk.
After learning how important weaning off bottles was for his oral development, I decided that we would cut bottles out immediately. Change is hard for me, so I knew it would be hard on Kai too. I was prepared to deal with lots of crying and fighting, however, to my amazement, Kairo handled the transition effortlessly. I started by taking away his morning bottle and replacing it with a sippy cup. He cried initially, but soon he learned that if he wanted his milk he would need to start drinking it from the cup. After eliminating the morning bottle, I swapped the snack and lunch time bottles for sippy cups too. Easy! The nighttime bottle was the most difficult.
We used the nighttime bottle to put him to sleep, so transitioning him off of this one meant he needed to learn how to put himself to sleep first. We focused on getting him to put himself to sleep in my bed (yes, we were still cosleeping at this point), then transitioned him to the crib so he could learn to put himself to sleep in there, all before finally taking that last bottle away. This entire transition probably took a month and a half. That’s it. I was ready for this to take months, but Kairo is always amazing me with his resiliency and adaptability. He’s now putting himself to sleep on his own and drinking out of straw sippy cups/regular cups. Woohoo!
Fast forward a couple of months to today, and we’re currently going through another transition. I’m in the process of weaning off of my pump. I’m throwing in the towel with breastfeeding and reclaiming my time and body back. I’m at 2 pumps a day right now and will continue to decrease until I’m no longer pumping at all. I hope to be done by the end of April. Kai gets 8oz of breastmilk milk and 8 oz of goat milk. By the end of the month, he’ll be getting 16oz of goat milk only. As someone who maintains a plant based diet, transitioning him to goat milk has forced me to challenge some of my internal beliefs. What ideas and truths have I been attached to that prohibit me from making the best decision for my son? Dairy milk being bad was one of them.
Deciding to wean and no longer provide breastmilk for Kai was a really hard decision for me to make. I felt a lot of guilt around making this decision, but in the end, making it almost 2 years exclusively pumping is a huge accomplishment that I’m proud of. I did my best in making sure Kairo got my milk for as long as I could and I’m comfortable with the decision I have made.
In both of the transitions mentioned above, I had to come to terms with the fact that despite being “late” to bottle weaning and having to stop pumping I’ve always done my best. It’s so easy to get caught in comparison or guilt, but in knowing that you did your best, you can come to terms with your story. Honestly, there is no right or wrong way to do this motherhood thing. We’re figuring it all out one day at a time, and arriving at different milestones and decisions on our own time. How things play out for you, is exactly how they were meant to. You aren’t late and you didn’t quit early. You’re always right on time.
Stay ViKtorious, Mama!
