Totally Weaned Off!

(This is a recent photo of Juan Or at 1 year 3-and-a-half months old. Haha...big boy already...don't wanna suck from Mommy's breast anymore!)

It has already been 1 month since Juan Or weaned himself off from suckling at Mommy's breast. During that 1-month period, Mommy had tried offering him to suckle on the breast, but Juan Or refused. How did he refuse? This was how it went - Mommy first asked Juan Or whether he wanted to suck Mommy's ne-neh (breast in Hokkien). Juan Or would then respond by shrugging his head. Then to make sure that Juan Or really understand what Mommy meant, Mommy would lift up the blouse and offer the ne-neh to him. Then Juan Or would give Mommy a sheepish grin as if to say,"What!? I'm so big already, some more still want me to suck from your breast?"

There was another occasion when Mommy was lying on the bed and Juan Or was crawling and playing on the bed. Then, just to test him out or to tease him, Mommy would lift up the blouse and offer it to him. Juan Or would respond by going near Mommy, as if he has the desire to suckle again, but when he got near, he gave Mommy a kind of sheepish grin as if to mean that although his heart wants to suckle on Mommy's breast, but he felt himself too old for all this!

Some history about Juan Or's auto-weaning process: Mommy had been breastfeeding Juan Or (and pumping breastmilk as well!) regularly for 1 year. After one year, Mommy stopped pumping breastmilk because Juan Or's intake (directly from the breast) started to become irregular. There were occasions when Juan Or didn't suckle from Mommy breast for a straight 3 days. During those 3 days, Mommy had offered him the breast when he was still sleepy but partially awake, but the moment Mommy put him near the breast, he struggled and protested. So Mommy didn't pursue further. However, after those few days of not suckling, finally Juan Or suckled again. This went on until about 1 month ago when Juan Or didn't want to suckle at all from Mommy's breast. As of now (as in not suckling for 1 solid month), if Mommy is to use the fingertips to squeeze the nipple, some milk will still ooze out. However, Mommy has not felt any breast engorgement at all during the 1-month period even though milk production is still on. Mommy guess Mommy's desire to breastfeed Juan Or is still very strong although Juan Or doesn't want to be breastfed anymore. Oh.....Mommy definitely misses those tender moments when Mommy was breastfeeding Juan Or!

Of Depleting Breastmilk Supply and Auto-weaning

(Mommy's frozen breastmilk supply)

Of late, Mommy's breastmilk supply has gone down again! How sad!

Below is a quick timeline of Mommy's breastmilk supply history. The number of months indicated refers to the age of Juan Or.

1 month: Quantity was uncertain because Juan Or fed directly from the breast, so Mommy can't see how much breastmilk had been drunk.



2 months: 10-12 oz. within approximately 8 hours.



3-6 months: 12-16 oz. within approximately 8 hours.



7-9 months: 10-13 oz. within approximately 8 hours.



9-10 months: averaging 10.5 oz within approximately 8 hours.



11 months: averaging 7.5 oz within approximately 8 hours.





To date, Mommy's breastmilk supply has further gone down to 7.5 oz which Mommy thinks is attributed to Juan Or's auto-weaning. For all that Mommy knows, Mommy has never tried to wean Juan Or, but somehow Juan Or seems to want to wean himself. On many occasions, when Mommy offered Juan Or the breast, he merely turned his head away. And if Mommy continued to offer him the breast, Juan Or started protesting and fretting. So nowadays, Juan Or has not suckled on Mommy's breast for as long as 17 hours in a row. Obviously, lesser suckling stimulation also means lesser milk supply. Juan Or will only suckle on the breast when he is half asleep and that's during the midnight till the wee hours in the morning.





Anyway, Mommy does not intend to wean Juan Or off totally yet because breastfeeding is so convenient. Breastfeeding can be easily done when the baby wakes up in the middle of the night to feed and you are forced to wake up. So you end up breastfeeding the baby but your eyes are shut because you are still very sleepy. Breastfeeding is also convenient when in the middle of a long car ride, baby goes hungry or thirsty, and all you have to do is just put the baby at the breast and voila, baby gets fed! No pouring, scooping or mixing required! And no mess too in case your hubby makes an emergency brake!