The memoranda

MEMO

TO: The Little Boss
FROM: Mommy
DATE: December 20, 2013
RE: Weaning

It has been brought to my attention that the weaning process needs to begin. Over the next few days, we are going to need to step down your milk intake and step up your intake of solid foods. Now I know that you aren’t all that excited about solids, but in the interest of not starving, I think you ought to reevaluate the merit of solid foods.

My plan is to first do away with the nighttime feedings. To that end, daddy will be taking care of you at night. Don’t have a meltdown, though, he’ll take good care of you, even though he can’t provide you with any milk. And, as an added bonus, you’ll get to start sharing a room with your oldest brother. Won’t that be fun? (Psst! He has a lot of fun toys in his room! 😉 )

After a few nights of night weaning, we’ll cut down from 2-3 daytime nursings to just one in the morning right when you wake up. A few days after that, we’ll start decreasing the amount of time you spend nursing. So we’ll go from 3 minutes per side to 2 minutes to 1 minute and then zero minutes.

I know, it totally stinks that we have to do this on such a compressed schedule when neither of us is ready, but it’s really important, so I guess we get to take one for the team, okay? Hopefully this gradual method will work out well for both of us and we’ll be able to have you weaned in about 10 days.

Besos, amorcito!

MEMO

TO: My body cells
FROM: Me
DATE: December 20, 2013
RE: Decreasing milk production

As you may have heard, things are a bit haywire in the breast neighborhood. Some of the cells in that neighborhood have gone totally nuts and have started behaving in an unapproved manner. They are changing the appearance of the houses in certain parts of the neighborhood and are even busting out of some of the houses and trying to move in to other people’s houses. . Although several neighborhood watch meetings have been held, the local cells have been unable to find a way to boot out the rogue cells, so they have turned to outside help. The plan is to completely remove the sections of the neighborhood containing said cells. Yes, this means that many of the good cells are no longer going to be around. They are aware and are willing to take one for the team.

What I need from you cells in the brain neighborhood is to quit sending the “make milk” signal to the mammary glands. I’ve already spoken with the toddler and he is aware that he is going to be cut off within 10 days. The fact that he will no longer be sending you the signal should help with the drying up of the milk. I would appreciate it if you would also work on your own to slow down the supply in a smooth manner so as to minimize the amount of discomfort from random letdowns and engorgement.

Thank you for all of the wonderful work you have done in producing milk for my little humans over the past 6 ½ years. I’m forever indebted to you for that. Best of luck as you work to dry up the milk in the breast neighborhood.

MEMO

TO: The Little Boss
FROM: Mommy
DATE: December 29, 2013
RE: Weaning

I must say, I have been VERY impressed with how well you have handled the weaning! Granted, the first night was a disaster and so we abandoned ship. But, the subsequent nights went pretty well, from my perspective. (Daddy might have a different opinion, though!) It’s pretty clear to me that you got and understood the first memo. Within the past 9 days, you have suddenly decided that food was “all that” and are eating everything in sight. In fact, I’ve been amused to see you trying to mooch food off of anybody and everybody. This is good! You still are a little picky, but at least you aren’t spitting food out anymore. This is great progress!

The biggest surprise came this morning when you didn’t seem interested in nursing right when you got up. Instead, you just wanted to cuddle for about 15 minutes. I was planning on having tomorrow as our last day nursing, and I was getting all prepared to really savor the moments. It would seem that you had a different idea, which is okay. It’s probably better that the last nursing session happened without my knowledge, less traumatic that way.

We’ll see how the rest of the day goes, but I am optimistic that it will go well. Go team!

MEMO

TO: My body cells
FROM: Me
Date: December 29, 2013
RE: Decreasing milk production

Well, my cells, I have nothing but good things to say about you. I am, of course, referring to the cells in the brain and breast neighborhood, but only the non-rogue cells in the latter. You would think that having the toddler go from nursing 6-7 times a day to twice a day in a single day would be a huge shock to the system. But you handled it with aplomb. It only took you about a day and a half to settle into the highly decreased production rate. When I reduced the nursings in half, yet again, you didn’t flinch at all and just went with the flow, or lack thereof! I’m so very pleased that you have gotten and understood the memo.

I’m not sure whether the outside help you received was actually helpful. I suppose I’ll never really know whether the cabbage leaves or the compression band did any good. At the very least, it made me feel like I was doing something to help out. =)

I’d like to thank you for your quick adaptation to the rapidly reducing demand for milk. I can’t tell you how glad I am that I only had to “pump to comfort” twice. When I spoke with the lactation consultant, she said, “Wow! That’s really great! Your body is doing a stellar job of adapting.” Yes, yes you have!

We had a little monkey wrench thrown into the plans this morning. I was planning on nursing two more mornings, but it appears that the toddler prefers snuggles over milk. So, let’s not get off track here. Keep on bringing that production down. We need to be at absolutely nothing by the time the surgery happens in about 3 weeks, and it would be great if we could be there by the 7th, just to make sure the surgeon doesn’t try to push medication on us. Say it with me: We don’t want drugs! We don’t want drugs!

Good work, everyone! Go team!