The Physical Pain of Weaning: My Experience & Lessons Learned

From talking to friends and co-workers, I knew to expect a day or so of discomfort after I completely stopped nursing and/or pumping. I prepared the best that I could. I had been scaling back for nearly a month, and I was ready to put up with some pain while things dried up. As it turned out, my experience was nothing like what I expected... Today is one week exactly since I stopped everything, and it is the first day I can honestly say I have only minimal pain. Discomfort is nowhere near strong enough a word for what I felt over the past week. Here's a quick rundown of that week:

• Tuesday, 1/21: Nathan's actual birthday and Day 1 of no more pumping. By the end of the day, it had been over 24 hours since my last pump, and I was feeling full and a bit tender. It was slightly uncomfortable, but still within what I expected to feel.
• Wednesday, 1/22: Day 2. I woke up feeling quite a bit more tender. I figured Day 2 would be the worst, so I gritted my teeth and determined to carry on. The pain got worse throughout the day. By that evening, it felt like I had several clogged ducts (hard, painful areas around each breast). Every movement hurt. If my arm brushed the side of my boob, it hurt. If I tried to take off my shirt, it hurt. If I held my son against me, it hurt. And heaven forbid if he accidentally kicked me while changing his diaper.. the pain was excruciating. I actually broke down in tears at that point. Up until then, I had assumed this was all part of the process and assured myself the worst would be over soon. After all, everyone I talked to had said it would be short-lived. Right??? Wrong. I couldn't sleep at all that night. The only position I could lay in without horrible pain was on my back, which is my least favorite.
• Thursday, 1/23: Day 3. I worked from home and Paul was back on shift. After a difficult and painful struggle to get Nathan to daycare on my own, I did some research. Paul wanted me to call my doctor's office, but before I did that, I was determined to find out what, if anything, I could be doing on my own to ease the transition. My boobs felt like they were going to explode; I wanted so badly to pump to ease the pressure. I found some good advice on kellymom, including the recommendation to go ahead and pump if needed (just for a few minutes, enough to take the edge off). The article assured me that pumping for that short a time would not send a message to keep producing, thus prolonging the entire experience. So I went ahead and pumped for 5 minutes (expressing only about an ounce of milk) and it did feel slightly better, although I think it would have been more beneficial to have done it the night before. I still had some hard, painful areas, which I had read could lead to infection if not unclogged. Heat had always helped in the past when I had clogged ducts, so I heated up 2 neck/shoulder bean-bag warmers and wrapped them around my chest. I did that repeatedly throughout the day. Light compression (in the form of a sports bra) also felt good and helped minimize accidental trauma. That night I slept in a sports bra with the warmers laying on top. It was still painful, but I slept slightly better...
• Friday, 1/24: Day 4. I could feel the pain starting to subside, but it was by no means gone. The hard areas had also softened some, so I felt like maybe that was progress. This was also the day that Paul and I began our weekend away (not far away... we were attending a convention - related to his work - in a hotel about 20 miles or so from home). We went to dinner with some of his friends/co-workers and their wives that evening, and I had TWO drinks for the first time in a very long time! I still felt pretty tender, but the drinks may have helped numb things a bit :) Despite a rather uncomfortable hotel bed, I slept better than I had (which was good because I was supposed to get to sleep in the next morning!).
• Saturday, 1/25: Day 5. While our husbands were in meetings or doing drills, the other wives and I went to lunch and then spent the afternoon at the spa getting our hair and nails done for the big, fancy dinner that night (originally I had planned for a massage too, but nixed that plan since I didn't think I could lay on my stomach). I had to wear a strapless bra and cocktail dress for the dinner, which actually didn't hurt as much as I was worried it might; things were snug in the chest area, so it felt okay.
• Sunday, 1/26: Day 6. Slept in at the hotel and woke up NOT in pain for the first time since starting the process. Still had some discomfort but was able to hug my son when we got home that afternoon. By this point, I had also spoken to my mom and found out that her experience (several years ago) had been the same as mine. Maybe there's something genetic in there? It certainly was not anything like what my friends had all described, or even what I'd read about in preparation for stopping. 
• Monday, 1/27: Day 7. Woke up after a decent night's sleep. Felt adventurous enough to try working out. It hurt but I made it through an entire DVD (having skipped only a few moves that involved a lot of repetitive jumping). Got lots of snuggles from my little man, who had clearly missed us :) Also got a couple elbow or knee jabs in the chest from him, which still made me cringe, but not cry at least!

And that brings us to today. On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the worst pain and 12 being where I was at on Day 2), I think I'm finally at a 1 today. I wish I had known that it could take a week. I clearly should have talked to my mom beforehand! It might not have made it any easier, but I would have at least been prepared to know that it could happen. And I would have implemented some of the strategies I read about a lot sooner (short pumps to relieve pressure, drinking sage tea, cabbage leaves, hot packs).

Like most things in the parenting world, everyone's story is different. Everyone's experiences and their reactions to those experiences are different. I choose to share my stories because I know that reading other people's stories can be helpful. Your story many not follow the same lines, but then again, it just might. You never know...