Pregnant-want to wean 2 yr. old

[mamachelle]

I'm 10 weeks pregnant and would like to wean my 2 year old. Currently I nurse her in the morning before work if she wakes up when I'm still in bed. My husband and I live close to work so we come home for lunch every day. My daughter demands milk immediately when we come home. This is the only way that she will take her nap in the afternoon aside from a gas-guzzling car ride! Then one more nursing session when I get home from work.

So it's only 2-3 times a day, but more during the weekend and vacations. I no longer enjoy nursing except for close cuddling. I never planned on nursing this long either (I'm glad that I have though), but the older she gets it seems the harder it gets. And being pregnant I would like to give "the girls" a little bit of a break until the new baby arrives. My daughter still loves nursing so much and she gets so upset when I try to refuse and it is almost impossible getting her to nap without it! Can anybody give me some suggestions on how to change our routine? I've thought about not coming home for lunch for a few days or taking her for a stroller ride, but I live in Florida and it's HOT through November!

[kohlby]

At the start, I'd let her nurse the same standard times during the day - but tell her she can't nurse the other times since it's not nursing time. My daughter knows she's only allowed to nurse while in bed, so that cuts down on the asking a lot! Then cut down how long she can nurse at each session. I did nurse throughout my entire pg with DD, but I had a ten second countdown I used to get DS to unlatch when I was ready to be done nursing. Sometimes, all I felt like nursing was 10 seconds, sometimes longer. He was the type who needed the comfort too, so we did 10 second countdown nursings when he was hurt and it really helped. (DD never comfort nurses). Once she's used to the 10 seconds, you can start making that time shorter by simply counting faster or starting at a lower number. It will make completely weaning her easier since you'll be down to mere seconds at each session.

I found it was much easier to tell my kids that they could nurse at certain times than to say no. Then I could decide how long or short the session would be. My daughter cuts down enough on her own, but I really needed that with my son wanting to nurse constantly. However, my daughter is still nursing though just 1-2 times a night. And my son weaned a month shy of 5 years old, at which time, pretending to throw up on him got him laughing enough that he no longer needed "emergency breastfeeds" for his comfort.

[mamachelle]

Thank you--those sound like great suggestions to try! So you breastfed your son when your daughter was born? How did that go? I'm worried that there won't be enough milk to go around for everyone if my daughter still wants to nurse

[kohlby]

There will be enough milk. Women breastfeed twins - and more- all the time! Tandem nursing worked out quite well. I'm hoping to do it again but my daughter is cutting down her nursing due to me being pg so I'm not sure if she'll self-wean. With tandem nursing, my older child helped a lot with engorgement! I did find that I had to assign each child a side since the baby wasn't getting enough hindmilk. DS only was allowed to use the right side. DD had to start on the left side - but could use the right side if she was still hungry. I figured if she wanted both sides and there wasn't enough, that she would just nurse again more often. This got my supply to adjust to where she only needed one side. Your breasts can adjust - even for different nursing amounts on different sides!

*I did explain to the older nursling that there were lots of things he could eat and the baby could only eat breastmilk - so she would be nursing more often. I had planned to keep the standard nursing times for the older child but changed my mind since it actually made it easier to let him nurse more often. I even nursed them both at the same time several times. I have heard some women say tandem nursing was worth it but difficult. For me, it was very easy. It would have been more difficult to not tandem nurse.

[kimber]

My daughter is 2.6 & I had been struggling with the weaning. Although I don't have a baby on the way, my daughter is the last of four and I'm just tired of nursing. My daughter is an all night nurser and the broken sleep is killing me & her. So about 4 months ago we stopped the daytime nap nursing session. The nights I knew would be the worse. I started about a week ago telling her that the milk would be yucky soon because she was such a big girl now. Then two nights ago about an hour before bed I placed yellow mustard on my breasts (little messy) and told her that they were now yucky. Of course she wanted to see, touch and taste - and she indicated to me "Yep yucky". I kept a small container of mustard by my bed to reapply when she woke at night. I would whisper to her "remember yucky" and she would go back to sleep. A couple of times she needed to taste. But it seemed to work - no crying or very little which surprised me and I thought she would have a breakdown she was so addicted. I had tried weaning a couple other times with just saying "no" and we would both end up crying. She only woke 2 times last night usually it's more like 10 and she just rolled over or curled up next to me. Next I'll work on getting her into her own bed but one thing at a time. Why this worked so easy I don't know all I can do is thank god. Weaning has been one of the hardest things I've ever had to do it broke my heart to see her so sad.

[kohlby]

My daughter is 2.6 & I had been struggling with the weaning. Although I don't have a baby on the way, my daughter is the last of four and I'm just tired of nursing. My daughter is an all night nurser and the broken sleep is killing me & her. So about 4 months ago we stopped the daytime nap nursing session. The nights I knew would be the worse. I started about a week ago telling her that the milk would be yucky soon because she was such a big girl now. Then two nights ago about an hour before bed I placed yellow mustard on my breasts (little messy) and told her that they were now yucky. Of course she wanted to see, touch and taste - and she indicated to me "Yep yucky". I kept a small container of mustard by my bed to reapply when she woke at night. I would whisper to her "remember yucky" and she would go back to sleep. A couple of times she needed to taste. But it seemed to work - no crying or very little which surprised me and I thought she would have a breakdown she was so addicted. I had tried weaning a couple other times with just saying "no" and we would both end up crying. She only woke 2 times last night usually it's more like 10 and she just rolled over or curled up next to me. Next I'll work on getting her into her own bed but one thing at a time. Why this worked so easy I don't know all I can do is thank god. Weaning has been one of the hardest things I've ever had to do it broke my heart to see her so sad.

I want my kids to have positive memories of nursing though. I don't want the last times they try to nurse to have memories of a yucky taste.