Not a fan, as it appears to have triggered a massive eczema flare-up to accompany all my other vexing health issues. I really feel like Humpty Dumpty some days. But the snow is pretty to look at. From the inside of course.
And we did have some fun in the interim. We sucked up the honeysuckle sweetness of autumn like nobody's business.
There were pumpkins.
parties
Tractors
Tricks
Treats
And time changes.
So relieved now for DST to be over after a good month of groundwork preparing for it. Chaya's now back on her original schedule more or less after a weekly "nudge" back of fifteen minutes.
And now, it's time ot settle in and cozy up and apply some more steroid cream to our chafed hands before the Thanksgiving madness.
After all these long battles to establish breastfeeding. After the horrible mastitis. The gradual and uncomfortable weaning from domperidone. The year of attempting to "shove a boob in the mouth" of a distracted baby. After the year plus of on demand toddler nursing gymnastics.
Here we are.
This shiznet from start to finish isn't easy.
I'm not 100% emotionally ready to be done, but I also am. More to the point, I'm ready to deal with my own body. It is starved for hormones other than prolactin.
We've actually just progressed to nursing only once before bedtime. It came in starts and stops. The initial warming to the idea was harder and took some major adjustment for both of it. The distraction of Grampa Tom's visit and a lot of laying of groundwork helped the the other two nursing sessions flicker out of favor more quickly. I have NO idea how I'm going to drop that last nurse before bedtime. It's going to be tough. On a regular time table I'd start working on whittling it down for the next few weeks and then phase it out, but we have a long Tday trip in the middle of November that just doesn't seem like the ideal time for any additional impediments to sleeping. We'll see how it all progresses.
Weaning when your toddler isn't leading the way is a pain, sometimes literally. It's involved. It's as obscure and confusing as most anything in a field of study dominated by domestic farm animals over actual lactating women.
Nobody knows a darned thing about It's rife with folklore and minimal peer review. And it's about as "natural" as a hungry black bear in your backyard.
SO let's take a tour of the general proscriptions.
1. Take it slow.
This is superlative advice if possible. For several reasons. One, it's emotionally hard. Two, a woman's body takes a while to get the hint. And if the milk doesn't come out, the breasts get engorged and then they get backed up. And then that turns into mastitis. And that sucks (life sucks when baby doesn't!). The boobs want to be absolutely sure that baby is fine before "drying up" and more or less eating itself. In fact, you can typically re-establish nursing up to about six weeks after a last nurse.
which leads to the big struggle
... be consistent.
Because a missed nurse here or there won't do anything. It's also easy to backslide into emotional or boredom or routine related nursing.
Dropping a nursing session every week is about the recommended maximum. And honestly, that's difficult. Some days, it's easy, but I swear when I started dropping the late morning nurse, it took roughly five times more attention, time, snuggling, and distraction to accomplish the same as a quick pop off of the shirt.
And on rough days, we are still having to distract.
It's getting easier, so I appreciate the hard work so far. But I'd better stay consistent. And Chaya had better not start popping those darned two year molars or get too ill anytime soon.
Leading to
2. Create distractions
If your baby has certain times of day they ask to nurse, change up your routine so they are out or otherwise occupied.
The bummer about this is the aforementioned overwhelming amount of energy required to completely change your schedule, make sure to be out, and make sure to be a whole lot of fun in the interim.
It also means getting ahead of thirst and hunger, which often lead to shirt-clawing. Since Chaya hardly drinks on her own, I'm mostly flailing around with a water bottle of flavored water, her orange juice, the perpetually rejected chocolate milk, and any variety of very watery foods. I have found that trying to get her to drink little sips through the day works best if I offer and if she's moderately distracted. So youtube time or when she's reading or playing in the bathroom or in the car... I have the water bottle out at least. And maybe a few different cups, as a new cup holds her interest for roughly two or three days.
Since she's getting less and less from me, I am hoping she'll start drinking a bit more. So far that's all elbow grease on my part. Listening to her thirst is not high on the toddler list of priorities so far.
3. Cabbage leaves
Ok seriously this is a thing. I'm not just channeling a Batman villainess or packing a snack. Women historically have worn these around their breasts to handle engorgement, mastitis pain, and it has a legendary aura of being able to dry up milk. I assume that the uitlity of cabbage leaves is restricted largely to (1) being cold, and (2) having a perfect mammary shape.
The only study looking into any of it found it was about on par with a cold or hot compress for relieving pain. but trust me, every one and their mother swears this helps reduce supply.
My best guess is that it may inhibit let down, being cold, and relieve swelling while the body regulates. It's more comfortable because the cold reduces swelling. And the nursling maybe nurses a little less because the milk takes longer to flow.
Nonetheless, I like cabbage. It's tasty. So I did stuff a bit in my bra for a bit there.
The cold did seem to help. And I could have sworn that the day I started this, Chaya finished nursing much sooner and barely nursed at all in the evening. Could have been adjusting. Could have been her weird mood. Who knows. I enjoy a tasty snack in my brazier. Next time maybe I'll go with apples and oranges too.
I'll probably break them out again when we drop the last session. But for now my breasts have mostly responded.
4. Peppermint
Speaking of things you can slather on your body. I have yet to try this and probably shan't. The research on peppermint oil is largely that it can help sooth nipple pain for new mothers. All the anecdotal beliefs that it reduces supply are unsubstantiated.
You're not supposed to drink essential oils, but some do. Some also swear that just a few altoids a day or a shamrock shake can tank their supply. I'm skeptical.
But peppermint tea is nice. Even the peppermint fans say you'd have to drink gallons for it to really help but it's tasty and i needed some kind of tea for my electrolyte drink.
5. Sage
Sage tea is a big thing that actually might have some suggestion of a mechanism and research, since it has a mild estrogenic effect.
I'm not really sure, but it's tasty enough. Most drink a teaspoon in tea for some period of time. I had a little every day for a few weeks. I also doubt it does anything, but why not?
6. Oregano, jasmine petals, and a million other herbs - who knows. Haven't tried. Though technically parsley is on that list as well, and I do eat that frequently.
7. Sudafed and diuretics. Actually clinically shown to be effective, but, since I'm on a doctor assigned quest to stay hydrated and then some, it seems like a bad idea.
8. Anti-histamines. Also effective, but those also can mess with heart rate so I was originally avoiding. But then with my hands flaring up, I've been taking benedryl at night. Not sure it's made a difference, but...
9. Birth control.Why I am stubbornly insisting that I want my hormones to sort themselves out, I don't know. I won't have time to do this before the doctor puts me on hormone replacement, but somehow I just am resistent. I want my body to be able to do this on its own.
10. Be prepared to be totally slammed.
Hormones are a biyatch front and back. Somebody else put it as feeling simultaneously pregnaant and having the owrst PMS ever. It comes and goes, but I am having spells of nausea, discomfort., tiredness, and this weird hormonal feel I recall all too well from HRT days. It's a strange kind of tinny spaciness.
For all I know the eczema is also hormonally incited. This is a thing.
At any rate, Chaya's been a champ mostly, although I think it's left her ea bit more momma-centric at other times. And it is exhausting work.
Hopefully once hot cocoa weather is upon us, she'll change her mind about that chocolate milk stuff, but given it's apparently Christmas season, I'm not holding my breath.
Wish us all luck and happy snow days for all!!
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