My body changes after stopping breastfeeding, the crazy breastfeeding weaning symptoms I experienced during the 8 weeks after weaning my one-year-old.
Hello, friends! I hope your holiday season is treating you well.
I mentioned on my Friday Favorites. Weaning was hard for me, more physically than emotionally. I wanted to take today to explain and share my story, in case it helps another Mama out there thinking to herself WTF is going on?
I know that I was blindsided by the effects weaning had on my body, and when I googled it, there was very little about weaning side effects when you’ve been breastfeeding a long time. There was a TON of information for new Mama’s who need to wean for medical or personal reasons, but nothing for Mama’s who’d been breastfeeding a year, as we did. Just a few message boards.
Like most, our breastfeeding journey was no walk in the park. Baby K had a tongue tie, MSPI, low milk supply, and I had a slow letdown. For a long time, every nursing session was a struggle, so it was no surprise when right before a year, Baby K began to refuse nursing sessions.
Fine with me, I had planned to wean at one year anyway because I was going on a trip. By 11 months, we were down to 3 nursing sessions a day.
So I cut down one every week or so until we were at one nursing session in the morning only. We did this for about a week and a half, with some skipped days. So, when I left for FNCE, I figured losing that last feeding would be no problem.
What I Thought Was Going To Happen
- Milk supply would dry up in a week. My supply was low anyway.
- I’d have more energy, feel better, and get my body back.
- I’d be a little sad, but Baby K would be okay.
- My cycles would return as usual since they were normal before the pregnancy.
What Actually Happened
Before I jump in and tell you my crappy story, please know that not every woman will experience weaning symptoms. So just because I’m writing about it doesn’t mean it will happen to you. This is just what happened to me!
Baby K was okay, and I was not really sad, we were both ready to be done with nursing. The fact that I’m so okay with being done nursing makes me feel guilty. Why wasn’t I more attached to it? Why didn’t I want to breastfeed for two years?
And then, I snap myself out of it because we made a year, and that’s something to be proud of. Mom guilt, be damned.
I felt dizzy, light-headed, and extremely fatigued for about six weeks. My milk supply didn’t try up for EIGHT WEEKS. That’s right, it just now dried up. I did the cabbage leaves, drank the no more milk tea, and prayed, but in the end, it only took time.
Oh, and the most fun part of it all? Periods every 14 days. Now, if you’ve been following a while, you know that I’ve had a wonky hormone history. I went on birth control at 18, because I was having this same issue (periods every other week.) Was on BC for six years, got off, didn’t have a period for five years, then they returned, but with a shorter than ideal luteal phase, so I was on progesterone almost my entire pregnancy with Baby K.
I kept thinking that I could handle these periods every 14 days with seed cycling and my body would even out, but after six periods in 8 weeks, I gave in to my doctor’s recommendation of 10 days of progesterone. I’m on day 5 of taking the progesterone, so we will see what happens there.
We want more kids, and the fact that I’m probably not ovulating makes me scared as hell. Then I remember I didn’t have a cycle for five years and eventually was able to get pregnant, so I know I just need to be patient. (I’m not quite ready anyway, just want to know we can have them ya know?)
How I’m Feeling Now
It’s officially eight weeks since we weaned.
Its weird breastfeeding is a distant memory, a giant blur filled with ups and downs.
The dizziness, lighted headedness, and fatigue are gone. I’m feeling more like myself, except now I’m on the progesterone, which has turned me into a sob factory. So that’s fun, God Bless Mr. Hungry.
Overall, I’m feeling better, though, sob factory or not. And now I have even more of an appreciation for what my body was able to do in pregnancy and breastfeeding.
What about you? Did you experience any side effects when weaning, or was it a smooth transition?
Stumbled on your blog today as I was googling physical symptoms of weaning. GOODNESS GRACIOUS I FEEL LIKE MY BODY IS GOING CRAZY! Dizziness and muscle twitches (not sure from hormones or because the doc put me on Zoloft). Did you have any other symptoms or were those primarily it for you?
Also, Happy RDN day to a fellow dietitian!
Happy RDN day to you too! What I wrote in the post were the only symptoms I had that I recognized as symptoms. I’m sure other stuff could have been going on and I didn’t realize it! Hang in there though, things do eventually normalize!
I’ve never commented on a blog ever but I’m here to share my experiences with weaning. After weaning all 4 of my kids I suffered severe panic attacks, EXTREME fatigue, shortness of breath, fast heart rate enough the be on beta blockers, chest pain, muscle aches, headaches, etc etc. Like clock work all 4 times 🙁 I spend endless money going to see specialists and getting test after test because it feels like I’m dying 😭 I wish there was a way to get us back to normal without feeling so bad. I’m currently having all these symptoms weaning my 4 after 13 months.
Oh my gosh! So sorry you are going through that, I hope it passes quickly!
It’s only been one week for me and I can’t believe how tired I feel. I’m struggling to focus on anything. I cried reading your post thinking about another 7 weeks of this, but mainly because it’s so nice to hear someone else going through the same thing. Thank you.
Thank you so much for writing this! I stopped pumping 3 weeks ago and have had the worst dizziness and nausea! Worse than when I was pregnant. I seriously thought I was crazy as they don’t have very much information about the physical symptoms of weaning. :/ I have hope that this will go away soon since reading your words. Again, thank you so much for this, I appreciate this more than you know!
So this is helpful. I’ve been slowly weaning over the past 6 weeks or so. The fatigue hit a couple weeks ago. I’ve dropped down to one feeding a day (around that time?) and oy. I’ve had my period back since early postpartum (despite BF, I always get my period back around the 6 week mark. Lucky me.) Now in the second half of my cycle I’ve had awful cramps that will come and go the past few days. It’s just weird. I didn’t expect so many bumps. Bleh. I’m glad you share your story. It’s nice to know something isn’t necessarily wrong!
Yeah, it’s super crazy right?!?! That sucks about your period, I have a friend that happened to too! I should have written this in the post but when my period came back after weaning it came back every two weeks and I had to do progesterone to get it back on track. Oh, the joys of being a woman! lol
Hi, i am writhing this in tears, i am so happy for your blog, i was put on antidepresives while i was pragnent because of panic attacks, after giving birth to my baby have experience 6 weeks of strong enxsayeti but after everything went great, i was happy, i decidet to stop because i was geting super dezzy and forgetful, spend a lot of mony for specialists, end up twice in emergensy, everyrging ok, they changed 4 tipes of pills nothing works, i realy hope it will get better, this is going on now for 2 months😣
Thankyou again
I’m sorry you aren’t feeling well, I’ll be praying for you!
Hello,
Thank you so much for writing about your experience!
I only just cottoned on to the effects of weaning now, after experiencing dizziness and fatigue for a couple of weeks. I breastfed my son for 14 months but started to cut down at the 1 year mark, as I was back at work and couldn’t pump there.
I cut down suddenly from 100% breastfeeding to only morning and nights. I also breastfeed throughout the night if he’s unsettled and waking up. There was an uncomfortable 2 weeks when my milk supply was settling down but no other symptoms until now (2months after the sudden stop). I’m down to about 1 or 2 feeds a day.
I feel so dizzy. I’ve been googling everything! I hope this is it and it passes when my hormones are back to normal.
Fingers crossed 🤞
I’ll comment again once my symptoms disappear.
Ugh yes, the dizziness sucks but it does go away!
Omg, thank you for writing about this! My 18 month old daughter was down to two feeds (nap time and bedtime) for the last 5 months. It didn’t seem like I was producing much recently, so when she suddenly stopped nursing last week, I figured we had tapered off enough to avoid major problems. AACK. Dizziness. Nausea. Muscle cramps. Anxiety. And soooo tired.
It’s a huge shift on your body!Hope it passes soon!