To Wean or Not to Wean: The Pain-free and Tear-free Way (well..almost!)

WARNING: if you are easily embarrassed by the mention of breasts, breastfeeding, boobs, nursing, weaning, or any other form of these words, then this blog post is NOT for you! Just thought I would give a warning to some of my readers :) Also the instructions in this post on how to make weaning easy is just my opinion/ experience. It is not backed by any professional opinions or information, but I would assume it would work for everyone!

But if you want to know a great ALMOST pain-free/ tear-free way to wean...then read on my fellow nursing moms.

He was this happy for the first 5 days of weaning

I have to give a funny story of my little munchkin before I get into the details of the weaning. My title says: pain-free/ tear-free (well almost) because my son did perfectly for 5 days no crying just being a little fussy, but on day 6 and 7 of weaning he was fussing constantly and crying for no reason (didn't know if it was due to weaning or teething). It seemed as though he didn't notice he was missing his daily boob for 5 days straight and then on the 6th day he realized I had been gypping him. Poor thing :( Other than that he has been handling it well!

Here's what I learned from my weaning experience:


1st: Decide your weaning timeline.

I did not have any pressing reason why I should hurry and try to wean my little one by the time he hit a year so I decided to do a mixture of a slow wean and letting him self-wean

2nd: Listen to your body and to your baby

Recently, in probably the past 2 months, my munchkin has acquired another 4 teeth. A baby nursing with 6 teeth is not always the most comfortable feeling especially when they're first coming in. It consists of a LOT of rubbing. I decided that when he was 11 months we would start a slow wean and see how it went. He was already down to 3 feedings a day, but a lot of times during the middle of the day feeding he would play around and only eat for maybe 10 minutes when he typically would nurse for 20 minutes. That's when I decided he was giving me the signal that he was ready to skip that middle of the day nursing session. Once I cut this session out, my breasts were better able to adapt to the teeth and he NEVER even missed/ cared about skipping this feeding

3rd: Let your baby self-wean (if you can/ within reason)

I knew that I did not want to do a cold turkey wean as soon as he turned 1. I didn't want to deal with the discomfort nor did I want to put him through that upset! Since we were already down to 2 feedings a day, I slowly started making sure they were properly spaced out. He would wake up around 530am, nurse, and then go back to sleep. In the evening I tried to feed him between 630-730, and the put him to bed around 830. At this point, I made sure to never nurse him to sleep anymore. I did not want him to associate breastfeeding with sleeping.

One night I was out tutoring and the hubsters was watching little M and he fell asleep without his nightly nursing session! That's when I knew he was ready to give that session up also. From there we were down to once a day, just the 530am session. Another couple of weeks passed and one morning he slept through his usual boobie time until 830 and that's how we cut out the morning nursing session.

4th: Cabbage, cabbage, cabbage, heat, heat, heat, and massages!!!

Thankfully, I did not get engorgement or a lot of discomfort. I'm pretty sure this is because I slowly weaned instead of doing cold turkey. I did put cabbage in my bra during the day to help dry up my milk faster and when they were sore I put heat on them at night or massaged them. I HIGHLY recommend using cabbage; the coolness of it really helps the heat that is radiating off your breasts while you're body is trying to reabsorb your milk. The one mistake I made was not having cabbage in my house the day I started weaning him! If your breasts feel too full or are uncomfortable, you can easily express some milk for relief. I did end up with a couple of hard spots (what felt like clogged ducts) and since they weren't going away as quickly as I wanted, I did let the little munchkin nurse for 3 mins on day 3 while he was still sleeping. BUTTTT, I do not recommend this is your child will fuss. Mine was asleep and did not even notice; he drained my ducts for a few minutes and the spots never came back.

Just a little over a week and we're completely done nursing! Very little discomfort and very little crying. Like I said before he did wake up fussy on day 6 and 7, but I really think it was more teething/ growing then the fact that I cut out his beloved boobie time.


Extra hints: One thing that made this easier was when I would be gone during his feeding time. It made the adjustment easier on him; he didn't have to stare at his food source refusing to feed him!
Also decrease your fluid intake a LOT and start introducing whole milk when you get down to only 2 feedings per day! Slow introducing the whole milk will help them take to it more easily.

If you're weaning, try the above steps and it should go smoothly!

This is what his face looks like when he gets sad....almost made me want to give in on day 6 and 7!

Olympics

There's something about cheering for the USA during the Olympics that makes me want to workout. I think it must be their sheer athleticism that makes me want to achieve just 1/100 of their strength. During the nightly news when the Olympics were on hold, the hubby and I banged out this workout:



3 times through: completed in 24:06 (time went a little longer due to munchkin interruptions..lol)
1. push-ups (20)
2. squats (30)
3. tucks abs (20)
4. shuttle runs (30)
5. Spiderman push-ups (10)
6. wide leg squats (25)
7. leg tuck and twist (20)
8. switch lunges (20)
9. decline push-ups/ reverse pull-ups (15)
10. leg throws (abs--30)

After the third time through, I tossed on my sneakers and tried to beat the thunderstorm that was coming. I only managed to squeak in a mile before the lightening started, but I'll take every little bit!

Here's something motivating that I really liked:

My goal: trying to drown myself in sweat!

Still on track! Booyah!

Before this, I was posting about my Insanity workouts and our (the hubby and I) weekly goals. Don't worry...I did not get off track again! I just traded a few days for hiking with my family, ziplining with my family (this also involved hiking), my Little M's first BIRTHDAY!!!, and the military ball. I did Insanity up until I had to drive to Denver to pick up my sis from the airport and then started with working out again this past Tuesday.

FYI: I did fit into that red dress I wanted and didn't even have to get it altered in the chest!! Push-ups DO work....100%!
Here's a quick picture recap of the fastest, most wonderful 4-day weekend I have had in a while,

Presents!

About to go in

Hiking in Cheyenne Mountain

Yum, Yum, Yum!

Ready to zipline

Coming in for a landing...ignore my facial expression and shirt

Inside!

With my sister

My hubby hanging upside down!

That was our weekend! But as always after lots of fun you have to go back to reality and that means back to working out. I didn't started right back up with Insanity because I'm also in the process of weaning my munchkin. I figured all of the push-ups, bouncing around, etc of Insanity would probably not help with any discomfort I might have. So this is how I supplemented

Wed: 1.72 mile run. Half hills/ half flat land
Thurs: 2.07 mile run. All hills: 1 easy hill, 1 medium, and 1 really hard hill
Thurs: The hubby and I finished strong with Ab Ripper X (P90X: we have the real video, but this is the youtube part 1) video, and 2 bodyrocks! Bodyrock 1 and Bodyrock 2

I must say I'm super proud of him for doing this with me. He did his regular PT and then did the 3 extra workouts with me when I got off work at 8.
Goal for this week: his is portion control; mine is keeping my calories under 1500.

I think I also forgot to mention that I'm doing a Big Dog Brag mud run in a week. Yipes! I also don't know how prepared I am.
So, Goal for today: Run, abs, bodyrock: hopefully one right after another

Here's just a few of the obstacles:

Hopefully, they don't get a picture of my butt like that...I will be MORTIFIED!

Set your fitness goals this week and do something fun that keeps you active!

Boost!

Today was one of the craziest days I've had in a while....ANNDDD we all know what usually happens on crazy days: your workout time goes right out the window! I thought that's how my day was going to go. I woke up this morning got everything ready for the day, volunteered at VBS, took the baby to daycare, tutored for a couple of hours, then had to take my car to the collision center/ pick up my rental (yup...hubsters got in a little fender bender. OF COURSE in my car.), reschedule a tutoring session, and pick up the baby. I barely felt like I had a minute to breath the entire day. When I finally got home, I put the munchkin down for a nap. My next thought was workout or take a nap myself??? I had been up since 6am and a nap was sounding waaayyy better then a workout. At that moment, my wonderful hubby (who had just done an 1 1/2 workout at the gym himself) popped in the door and the first words out of his mouth were, "Why aren't you dressed?? Let's do Insanity!!" Really!!?!?! Was he insane? But actually, his enthusiasm was contagious. I went upstairs to change and by the time I came down I was geared up and ready to go. Isn't nice how other people can give you a quick boost or kick in the butt and you remember why you wanted to workout? Love it! So hopefully this gives someone else the boost they need to get off the couch and complete their workout for the day.

Do it!

Kick-butt super food smoothie!

So lately, I have been OBSESSED with this smoothie I created. I think it may have to do with the fact that I finally caved in and let the hubby buy us a legit, commercial blender. I love, love, love my new blender. I at least make 1 sometimes 2 smoothies a day and have really been needing this blender. About 2 weeks ago, we were browsing through Costco (very bad idea) and they had the blender display for the Blendtec. I had already been debating about whether or not to get a Vitamix, but after watching this display and weighing the pros and cons......I was pretty much powerless to not buying it. SO here it is loaded up with delicious, healthful, protein and vitamin packed ingredients:

Yum!

But before I give the recipe, here's the rest of the story. Last week the hubsters and I decided to start Insanity. For some crazy reason (I think weight loss, abs, and more toned muscles) we wanted to do it and finish by my birthday. Well, we have one week down and I must say I'm pretty proud of us! We kicked butt this week and did about 5 Insanity workouts and the other two days when we didn't have time we did a bodyrock.

On top of working out we've been setting weekly goals for ourselves. Last week was drink more water and I'd say I did about 80% of what I wanted. This week is no eating after 7 pm. Yikes! I guess that means going to bed earlier. 

When I finally climbed on the scale (my nemesis) yesterday, I had lost a pound. I had hoped for more, but maybe that means I'm building muscle. In lieu of this, I will stick to my workouts, goals, and super amazing smoothies.

Here's the recipe (nothing complicated, but yet OH SO unbelievably Fabulous and Nutritious):

5 oz orange juice
5 oz almond milk (or soy, coconut, or dairy)
1 scoop whey protein
Flax seed (optional/ as much or as little as you want)
1/2 a cucumber w/ or w/out skin
2 to 3 handfuls spinach leaves
1/2 an avocado (this is optional for me based on the price of avocados)
1/2 a cup frozen blueberries
1/2 a cup frozen strawberries (or roughly 5)
1 frozen banana

If you have a superhuman blender like I do, put ingredients in as they specify, push the button and walk about. About 40 secs later you will have a perfectly blended smoothie.

This makes enough for 2 adults to have 1 1/2 glasses (16 oz) and a baby to have a 9 oz sippie cup....I know, I know my munchkin is greedy, BUUUTT it's healthy so I don't mind. With the avocado a serving size (1--16 oz glass) has about 250 calories. So without avocado it would be a little less. I typically drink it as a meal replacement or snack replacement which is why I drink 1 1/2 glasses.

Try it out and get to blending!

Another pic of my beautiful blender and smoothie creation!

Glass size!

Back to Normal Life: FINALLY!

Finally, my life is getting back to normal! I haven't blogged in over a month...which is not like me at all, but during June I worked twice as many hours, my husband was on leave, and then my in-laws came for a visit. All of these things were great, but NOT conducive to my workout schedule or anything else.

To fix this , the hubsters and I decided that we would start Insanity because we borrowed it from a friend. SO with me luck....I might DIE! The plan is to follow the program and finish by my birthday in September. This is the big birthday: 25. UGH!!! I know....turning 25 is horrible on my mental and emotional state, but being in awesome shape will make me feel better about it :).

We started Insanity day 1 yesterday, but really kicked it off today! We went hiking, then I did a bodyrock while hubby when tot the gym, and then we did day 2 of Insanity. Can't wait to keep doing this. Not working out for the past 3 weeks has done a toll on my muscle tone. Haven't gained any weight, but it doesn't really mean anything since I've lost my muscle tone. My goal is to get the killer abs I've always wanted so no more excuses, it's HAPPENING!

Here's the new guest host on bodyrock.tv: she has 3 kids and looks like this!