Weaning herself?

(Cross-posted in my livejournal).

So Morgan is just about 6 months old now (in another week).  Since birth, basically, she's been getting one bottle of formula a day, usually while I'm cooking dinner, and the rest of the time she is breastfed.  Sometimes she gets another bottle on weekends if we're out and about.

We're starting her on solid foods, so I've been giving her two bottles a day on the days when she has cereal (she won't always take the cereal so if she's too hungry I skip it, plus it's taking a while for her to get the hang of solid food.) 

Now it seems she is losing interest in nursing.  Often she pulls herself off me after only a couple of minutes and starts crying-apparently the milk isn't coming fast enough.

I'm not sure what to do.  On the one hand, formula is easier, and I don't have any real guilt about it-Dagmar was a formula baby, and I have been nursing for 6 months, which I'm really proud of.  On the other hand, I had hoped to nurse for 9 months, and since I'm still losing weight (slowly but surely) I don't really want to wean yet.  She still sleeps with us and nurses throughout the night.

Has anyone else had a baby who just weaned themselves?  Should I just let the daytime nursing go, and keep up with the night?  Any thoughts?

Babies who are 6 months old don't wean themselves.  If you want to up your supply or continue nursing, cut out the bottles of formula and solids.  Nurse, nurse, nurse...  eat some oatmeal, drink a lot of water.  She's pulling off and crying because she's getting used to the ease of the bottle. 

If you want her to wean, keep doing what you're doing because that's what's happening.  She's not weaning herself though.  Any time you add any artificial means of feeding, you've started the weaning process.  But if you want to keep nursing, no cereal (which is basically sludge anyway) and no more bottles.  It's really up to you what you continue to do.  Good luck! 

My daughter was formula-fed from the get-go, so can't really say about a nursing baby, but 'lunar' and I know of a terrific board for mums where there are lots of nursing mums, and former nursing mums, midwives, nurses and NCT counsellors to ask.  It's normal to feel guilt when breast-feeding ends - there are lots of threads about women who feel guilty even when their children are toddlers who are no longer interested in nursing.

Iron starts to become more important at around 6 months.  We definitely let Aillidh lead the way when it came to feeding.  She started watching us eat, trying to grab the eating utensils and making smacking noises whilst we ate at about 6 months.  So we started her up on the cereal and away she went!  Now she says 'Eat' or 'Food' (she'll be TWO in less than a month!) when she is hungry so it's easier.

Pat yourself on the back for getting to 6 months, Saf!  That's brilliant. 

Have you tried a slower nipple on the bottle?  Sometimes if they have to work harder to get food from Mom, they start to prefer the bottle.  It could also be a phase.  A lot of babies will act like they are weaning themselves when they start on solids but will fall back into old patterns after a week or so if you keep to your old schedule.

No matter what happens, though, you should feel good about how long you've breastfed.  It's tough to stick it out as long as you have.

Not exactly the same but when Ethan was about 3 weeks old I started mixed breast/formula feeding. A couple of weeks after this he kept rejecting the breast in favour of the bottle.  I talked to a midwife and she said it was most likely because the milk flows more quickly from the bottle (and I was using the 'slowest' teat possible).  Perhaps this is what is happening with Morgan. Can you perhaps express more milk so she is still getting the benefit of breast milk? I say go with the baby's flow, she will let you know when she's ready to wean and ready for solids. (Ethan was very slow to start solids, then one day he just gobbled up everything I gave him and hasn;t looked back).