I think it’s safe to say that Mac has been weaned.

That’s right, after 17 months (almost exactly to the day), I stopped breastfeeding Mac.

It was actually easier to wean him than I thought. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have only been nursing him before bed for the past few months.  I was so scared to let that feeding go, though, because of the battle scars from sleep training.  I’m telling ya, those sleep training scars stick with you.  Since nursing seemed to be the ONE thing that relaxed him and help him mellow down enough to go to sleep, I was nervous about giving it up.  Plus, it was my last connection to baby Mac (as opposed to toddler Mac).

But last Friday, I bit the bullet and decided it was time to stop.  I was in a wedding and my parents were going to be taking care of Mac that night.  I decided that was as good a time as any to simply quit cold turkey.

He got through Friday night no problem.  Saturday night was sort of agonizing because he sobbed and threw a temper tantrum in his crib for about an hour.  I think it was mostly unrelated to the fact that I didn’t nurse him, but I imagine the lack of breastfeeding wasn’t helping his hysteria.  Sunday went quite a bit easier, although there was still more crying than usual.  But come Monday, all seemed to be forgotten.  For this whole week, he has gone to bed no problem.

It’s sad.  I’m sad to be done with it.  I miss the connection.  I miss being able to provide for him in a way that no one else could.  I miss the quiet time, just the two of us, before bed.  I miss feeling like I have a superpower to calm him down.  But I’m happy with my decision.

I breastfed my kid for 17 months.  I feel good about that.  I realize that I have a child who would have nursed for an indefinite period of time, so I’m happy I cut it off before he really knew what he was missing (I don’t need him talking about how I’m a cruel bitch because I cut off his milk supply).

So that’s that.  No muss, no fuss, cold turkey cut-off of supply.  And physically, weaning was a cinch for me.  I had zero engorgement or pain.  Since I tapered off his feedings so gradually, things were super easy on me.  It’s definitely the strategy I’ll take next time.

Of course, now that I’m done with the last little piece of Mac’s babyhood, I obviously need another newborn, like, NOW!  Just in case I wasn’t baby crazy enough before.