On weaning

Man, I think I'm gonna have to make an appointment with our Metabolic doctor soon, because Cupcake is showing sings of weaning.   At the ripe old age of 9 months.  

I'm having very conflicted feelings about this, which I'm sure it's normal.

Currently we nurse at 9 am (wake up time). 12:30 or1pm, 4pm, 7pm and 9:30pm (bedtime), 12:30 pm, (dream feed)  4:30 ish (if she only wakes up once a night, which... riiiight... it's the best case scenario).

(As an aside, I'd like to share that technically, Cupcake can go longer between feeds - we're at 8 hours overnight- and doesn't metabolically need the midnight feed.  But we do it anyway, because otherwise she'd wake up at 2am, just as I am reaching my own REM sleep.  We have to work together, child.   But even though medically she could sleep longer, she seems to still get hungry during the night, after about 5 hours.  You can't convince me that MCAD is unrelated to to appetite.  I was told that the only issue with her MCAD is to feed her, so if she's hungry, homegirl is getting milk.  Hopefully this will sort itself out as she gets older.)

Aside over.  

So we've been having lots of trouble with the bedtime feed.   Cupcake is tired, fussy, and my letdown is super slow at the end of the day.  Also, and this might be the biggest factor, she usually has dinner with us at about 8 pm.  I'm beginning to think that milk at 7, solids at 8, and then again milk at 9:30... maybe not such a good idea.  By the time bedtime comes along she's probably not that hungry.  She'll usually eat, but more and more often she likes to be at the boob, but gets frustrated after a few minutes.  We go on with the routine and read books instead, and she doesn't seem too upset about it.  Seriously, sometimes she skips her bedtime milk,  which I thought was supposed to be the sacred one.

I'm thinking of combining the 4 pm and 7 pm nursing sessions.   As it is, the 4 pm is a complicated one too.  The way her naps work, I end up combining her 4 pm milk with her solid lunch sometimes.  And as we are usually out at the park at this time, she doesn't seem to interested in breastfeeding.   So maybe I'll just do one nursing session at about 5:30 or 6 pm, so that by the time bedtime comes along she'll actually hungry.

We'll see.  I'm hoping that in response to this adjusted feeding schedule, her naps will reorganize as well, and she'll go into two longer naps, instead of the current three.

Next week there's a La Leche League meeting.  I'll be curious what they have to say about it.  I'm fine with weaning.  Though I love breastfeeding, I'm not particularly interested in extended nursing.  I mean, if Cupcake has a hard time letting go, I'll keep giving her the boob as long as needed, but I have a feeling that won't be THAT long.  She likes real food way too much.