**note that I was an exclusive pumper and this was my experience of weaning, yours my very well be different!**

I think there should be classes dedicated to this IMO. Not only is weaning physically painful, but it is also a mental mind F***. I definitely went through a grieving process when weaning. No one talks about how it affects your hormones. Your body is going through a huge adjustment. You go from the challenges of producing milk and just wanting to produce more and more, to having to produce less and see your supply drop. As happy as I was to stop pumping, seeing only 1 oz of milk coming out of my pump as opposed to 4 or 5 made me feel sad. Every time I pulled a bag of breast milk out of the freezer, I felt sad. Sad that I was no longer having this connection with my son – and also guilt, that maybe I stopped too soon (I only lasted three months). I would imagine maybe those who breastfeed for a longer amount of time may feel differently, but this was my experience as someone who only did it for the first three months. 

On the flip side – what helped me get through this, was putting things into a different perspective. My son is so strong and healthy, I gave him breast milk for the first four (I had about a months worth stash in the freezer) months of his life, he is doing just fine on formula, he is about to start SOLIDS! And I now have more time and energy to be attentive to him because I do not have to have a pump attached to me 5x a day. 

For tips on how I weaned (This process took about a month):

• I slowly started to cut out pumps
• I cut my pump time down each pump
• Wore a super tight sports bra
• ICE ICE ICE
• Tylenol
• Hand expressed in warm shower until discomfort went away