weaning guilt.

just need to vent about this.

So I'm going back to work and I just had my baby 6 weeks ago and I have to wean her already because of the kind of job I have. I have slowly been weaning her off the past week and I just feel HORRIBLE. The GUILT is unimaginable. I feel so depressed about it and it's just BOTHERING me that I can't give her that kind of nutrition you know. I just feel like a crappy mother for weaning her so soon. I know I could breastfeed her but it's just too time consuming to pump enough milk and I am a polynesian entertainer (a hula girl) so having leaky boobs isn't ideal when you have to wear coconuts and duct tape your boobies into costumes. Not to mention I won't have time to pump there, my boobs will get engorged and it's a 45 minute drive to work. I just wish breastfeeding was easier so I could continue. *SIGH* Even though my baby does great on the bottle I guess it's just a motherly thing to want your child to have the best of everything. It's not even funny, I feel like a failure. I thought I'd be able to breastfeed for 6 months but reality has set in and it hurts...

Don't feel bad. I think everyone makes such a big deal out of breastfeeding that we all start to feel like failures if we don't BF for some magical period of time (I don't know how long is long enough). I originally planned to BF for six months but I'm finding it tough right now because of the pain and of course the fact that I have ZERO freedom (I know, it's my child, but sometimes it would be nice to be able to give him a bottle so I could drink some coffee or even have a beer...) and I'm starting to wonder if I'll last the six months. Anyway, so you're not the only one and think of it this way - it's more important for your child to have a roof over her head and you need to work to provide that. So, you breastfed for as long as it was possible and now it's time for something else.  

Quoting camillifer:“ just need to vent about this. So I'm going back to work and I just had my baby 6 weeks ago and I have ... [snip!] ... not even funny, I feel like a failure. I thought I'd be able to breastfeed for 6 months but reality has set in and it hurts...”

Going back to work after 6wks wow, is that quite common for mums to go back to work so early in the US,???
Your not a failure, you have done better then myself when my son was born, only lasted for a week BF him, as he was making me sore, soi gave up,
You have given her the first few weeks of your milk which is better then nothing,

i was going through this too. i actually made a post about it bc i was so upset.
you are NOT alone and i know exactly how you feel.

just like scubakitty said, BF moms tend to be really hard on themselves.

i started out ONLY BF my daughter..thengot lazy w/ it bc it took up SOO much time and i never got any sleep..so my mom told me that i should just try her on formula one day and see how she does on it so that SHE could feed her while i got some rest. well..ever since then ive been giving her formula  ...i totally quit BF for about a week bc i realized how much easier it was to just give her formula...and i was MISERABLE that entire week bc it was killing me that i wasnt BF her anymore. its like i wanted to do it SO bad..but it takes up SO much time. anyway, after crying my eyes out so hard one night..i told myself i was gonna start it up again. i talked to my friend courtney aboutthe BF problems and stuff, and she told meshe had a Medeladouble breast pump that she only used a few times that i could borrow! i was soo happy bc ithought that if this pump worked better for me then i couldfeel moreconfident about BF. i was worried bc i thought my milk had already dried up..but when i tried to pumpa bottle, i filled the whole thing up in like 15-20 min..so i was prettty happy =D
i THOUGHT i was just gonna go back to ONLY breastfeeding again (ideally thats what i wanted)..but instead,i give her formula during the day  , and i just pump bottles for her at night. But i guess thats better than none at all.

what formula are you putting her on?

Quoting Jake's Mummy:“ Going back to work after 6wks wow, is that quite common for mums to go back to work so early in the ... [snip!] ... he was making me sore, soi gave up, You have given her the first few weeks of your milk which is better then nothing, ”

You have given her the first few weeks of your milk which is better then nothing, ”