With my first kid, I was able to breastfeed him for a full year. It was great and worked for us at that time. With my second, I tried. I really truly tried. You can read my post "You Don't Have to Breastfeed" and all about my experience with that here. With my third, I tried again. But I couldn't do it. He wasn't gaining the weight he needed to. Plus, it was almost like my nipple was too big for his mouth..... haha!
With the last two, I had to dry up my milk sooner than I was expecting. It was painful! So, I am going to give you some tips on how to get it to dry up.
1. Stop nursing
You might be thinking "well, duh". But you can do it a couple different ways.To do it gradually, you can start by dropping a feeding every few days and by not pumping. I quit cold turkey and boy did I get engorged! Like, SO engorged! I would hand express some milk to relieve some of the pressure. I made sure I didn't touch my nipples. Nipple stimulation will tell your body to produce milk. So, don't touch those nipples!
Not only does rubbing a little bit of peppermint oil on your breasts help dry up the milk, it is incredibly soothing. And it smells good! I personally use DoTerra's peppermint oil, but this one had good reviews on Amazon.
3. Sudafed
You obviously can just buy a pack of Sudafed at Walmart or a place like that. If you don't feel like leaving your house with your cantaloupe sized engorged boobs, you can order it off Amazon here!
4. Cabbage Leaves
Wait, what? Cabbage leaves? Yep! Those nice cold leaves will bring you so much relief while they are helping to dry up your milk. I would switch them out every hour or so. They start to get warm and not smell the best.
5. Ice Packs
There was one night when I was in so much pain that I just laid in my bed, crying, with ice packs on both of my boobs. The coldness helped sooth them and helped a little bit with the swelling. You can get the ones pictured above on Amazon.
The first three days were the absolute worst. But by the end of the third day my breasts weren't as engorged or as painful. After 7 days I was feeling like I could fit into my regular bras. By day 10, my milk was all the way gone!
Just know that the pain will pass. Your breasts will stop bing engorged. Your milk will go away. And your baby will still be healthy and happy on formula!
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