[BlueMoon6]

Has anyone stopped nursing (breastfeeding) their baby to go on meds? I had to wean my 2 1/2 yo d to go on lexipro this past august. Now, she isnt a baby and nursed plenty in her life, but she loved it and I did too. I would have continued if I didnt so desperately need to be on medicaton.

Weaning her wasnt easy, but it wasnt so terrible either. She asks now and then, but not recently. Tonight when she was snuggled up to me to go to sleep she was all over me and asked me to drink "nursies" and telling me she missed nurisng so much. It broke my heart. I have told her i am on medication and I have medicine in my nursies so she cant nurse now. She was asking me when the medicine will go away. I know I need the lexipro, but this breaks my heart and almost makes me want to go off of it. Except I wouldnt be a very good mother off of it

Just wondering if anyone else out there has this same situation.

[Amazonmom]

I weaned my 3 month old to go on Lithium and Lamictal. I was rapidly going manic from taking Zoloft for my postpartum depression...oops I'm Bipolar instead! I was having a horrible time breastfeeding, and in a way it was a relief to quit.

But I still feel absolutely awful about having chosen myself over my baby. She's 10 months old now, and I wonder if I have hurt her by stopping breastfeeding. I wish I would have said I wouldn't quit breastfeeding but the hypomania really was starting to get bad.

Your baby deserves a healthy and stable momma. That really has to come first.

[BlueMoon6]

Thanks Amazonmom and Farmergirl. It is SO difficult. That must have been so difficult to wean a 3 mo old baby. ((((Amazon))) Im sure she is fine, the same way my daughter is fine, but I really enjoy nursing my babies and toddlers. They are so sweet at this age and it is the youngest I weaned anyone. I just felt like they could really lose me to depression. So, I did it. I dont regret it, really. I just feel so sad that it has to be this way. I miss her nursing and I know she misses it, too.

You know Amazon, if the hypomania is getting that bad that you decided to wean, Im sure she is better off for it. She has her mom the way she needs her. Only you know how much you can take before your mental health has to come before nursing. I never thought Id get to this point, but I (we) did what I had to do.

Did you have a miscarriage? Im so sorry (if that is what is in your signature). Ive had 4 of them and I know how so, so sad it is. ((((((Amazon)))) Peace to you.

[Amazonmom]

Yes, I lost a baby. Two forms of birth control, and I got pregnant. Then I lost the baby two weeks later. I think the posts are still on the Bipo and Depression boards. Thanks for the support....it helps to know there are others out there that know the pain.

I was already having massive problems breastfeeding that would have caused problems for someone who was perfectly normal, let alone someone with my story. I probably would have quit if I was using my "nurse brain", but a depressed person doesn't use their normal brain to make decisions. I was trying to be the perfect mom so that the intrusive thoughts would go away...but they were just getting worse.

I had already been supplementing with formula so my baby didn't care when I went to all bottles. I had the hypomanic switch soon after that.

Lithium really has made my life so much easier. Someday I will forgive myself for not being able to parent like I always dreamed of.

[BlueMoon6]

((((Amazon))) I wanted to cry when I read this. You ARE on your way to becoming the parent you always dreamed of. I have thought that some thing many times, because I got irritable, or said this or that, but we ARE becoming the people and mommies we dreamed we could be.

I have had those thoughts, too. Nursing isnt always easy, especially in the beginning. Its OK, baby has mommy, and thats all baby needs

It is so hard to lose a pregnancy. SO sad, SO hurtful. I am so so sorry you just went through this. I had a coouple of early miscarriages, but one I had to bury. It was the saddest thing I ever had to go through. I felt like I had lost hope. And I had other children, but the pain of losing what could be has stayed with me.

I think that since lithium has made your life easier, there is no doubt that it has made your children's lives easier.
Love to you

[sunrise]

Originally Posted by BlueMoon6

Tonight when she was snuggled up to me to go to sleep she was all over me and asked me to drink "nursies" and telling me she missed nurisng so much. It broke my heart. I have told her i am on medication and I have medicine in my nursies so she cant nurse now. She was asking me when the medicine will go away.

Since you haven't nursed her since August, you wouldn't have any milk left, so you could just tell her "the milk is all gone" or something like that, so she doesn't think if you would only stop taking medicine then she could nurse.

It can be a sad and poignant milestone when weaning happens. I nursed my first for 3.5 years, right up until my second was born. I actually intended to continue nursing both, but had explained to my pre-schooler that the baby would get first dibs. As it turned out, my older girl stopped nursing when baby came. It was a moment of sadness for her, and I remember her crying. I only nursed my youngest for 1 year, and then she self-weaned. What, so soon? I remember thinking. It was sad. I did not plan more children so I knew that I would never nurse again. They had a super duper electric breast pump where I worked, and I used to pump milk a couple of times daily so my baby could have milk during the day and didn't need to drink formula. After she weaned, I kept pumping milk and freezing it for months and months. So she never had to have formula, and I was still lactating long after she had weaned. At some point, I stopped. Lots of memories surrounding this... I think nursing was a wonderful thing to have experienced--it just feels so "right" ("I am woman, I am made to nurse") to be providing food for your baby, something so human and biological yet deeply caring and nurturing. I never felt the same about my breasts again. They were just so purposeful and functional now and could make this amazing food. It was cool to have experienced their raison d'etre after so many years of living with them.

BlueMoon, I am glad you got to nurse your youngest for 2.5 years before stopping. You got her off to a really good start in life! There are so many components of breast milk that we don't even know about yet, and they are so helpful for the baby's health. Someone I know worked for a while in research on one of these very important molecules (they were trying to make a synthetic version of it to use for treating some kind of immune disorder). These are all substances not found in formula. You done good!!!