Can't believe it's almost been a year!

So baby bug will be a year in a couple weeks. She still nurses 4 times during the day and sometimes twice at night. I THINK she might be cutting it back to only once at night (wooooohoooo!) but we'll see. She nurses around 6am, goes back to sleep for a bit, then at both nap times and bed time. I have so many mixed feelings and emotions right now, I don't know what I want to do. I was FOR SURE that once we hit a year I would wean her, but now I'm not AS sure. I think she'll be ok with out the morning feed so that will be the first to go and maybe replaced with milk (if she's not allergic, that's a whole different post!), but the others, hmmmm... My dilemma is our 10 year anniversary is coming up in August and DH wanted to get away for a weekend. Arrrg. I'm so confused! Maybe I should just play it by ear? Advice? Words of wisdom?

 

In my experience, people rarely regret continuing to nurse but I often hear of regret over weaning. If the only reason you would wean is because of the trip I would say play it by ear. You can take a pump with you or hand express while you're away & see if she wants to continue when you get back. She'll be fine with just water for the weekend if it comes to it.

Our 10 year anniversary is coming up in October & Emmett will be 11 months old. I'm just planning on taking him with us. It's not a complete break but only having 1 little along will be its own kind of treat.

 

I agree with Rachel that a weekend trip does not automatically mean you have to wean but it might happen. Here are my two experiences:
1. DH and I went away for a night when the twins were about 9 months old. I left plenty of EBM as well as formula and the babies did fine. They took bottles from the grandparents although they rarely had a bottle at home; they did know bottles from early supplementing and an occasional work meeting for me. I pumped around their regular nursing times and dumped (I could not ensure continous refrigeration) while away and had no problem swith my supply. We resumed nursing when DH and I came home without any problems.
2. When the twins were over 18 months old and my supply was dwindling (I could not keep up with enough pumping once I really went back to work) we had to leave the twins to travel for 3 days for a funeral in terrible winter weather conditions (taking the babies would not have been a good choice). Again, the babies did fine. This time the pumping was not enough to keep up what little supply I still had and the babies were no longer interested enough in nursing to stimulate my body to produce more milk once we came home. So, apart from a bit more comfort nursing that was the end of our nursing time. It sort of happened naturally but I did nourn it for quite a while.
GL with your decision!

 

Weaning is so very tricky and bittersweet. I do regret weaning at 14 months; although this was because it was during cold and flu season and after they weaned it felt like they were sick for 3 months straight! :gah: I would settle it in your heart one way or another so that you don't go from 6x's a day down to nothing as that could be physically painful for you. Is it possible for you to drop some of the more inconvenient feeds and have someone bring you the baby for a feed (1 or 2) for the time you are gone? It's probably not convenient but shouldn't cramp your style too much. :hug:

 

Thank you ladies! I think we're just going to play it by ear. We've decided that we're not traveling anyway until Oct for our anniversary trip and by that time she'll be 17 months.

 

Congrats on making it to a year!

Unless you really, really want to there is no need to wean automatically after 1 yr.
I've only just stopped bf and it's quite an adjustment to make mentally and physically.
We had our 10 year anniversary this march also and although I REALLY wanted to get away for a couple of days, I wasn't prepared to wean. I also missed oout on a big birthday party and sooooo many other party invites over the last few years. Having said that though, there haven't been too many offers of help to enable us to go out anywhere anyway. :search:

What i have said though to dh right from the start is when I finish bf, I will be going away BY MYSELF for a whole intire weekend. Now I just have to save up!

Do what works for you and your family. As pp have said, there are more than one way to still bf past 1 yr - whatever works!

 

And this is how many people who never thought they would, end up extended BFing. There's not a magic switch where they're a nursing baby one second and suddenly a toddler who doesn't need it the next. It happens gradually. I agree about letting her slowly wean on her own, if you're not sure. I did leave one of mine for a weekend at about a year. I left some frozen BM for my in-laws to give him and I took a small pump with me. We both did alright. Last summer, Spencer was just over 2 when I left for 5 days. We were down to nursing once or twice a day at most. I figured that'd be it. But when I came back, he kept nursing like I'd never left, and just weaned about 2 months or so ago.... though at the end it was down to once every couple days.