I don't want to wean, but...

[triana1326]

I'm to the point where I'm considering weaning, which I totally don't want to do. I suffered through dry sucking during my pregnancy and endured it because I wanted to make sure that my DD and I had the connection after DS was born.

NOw DD is so jealous when DS is nursing, begging DH to "take Robbie!!" so she can nurse. I occasionally do tandem nurse, but the sensation is overwhelming sometimes, and her latch and suck makes my skin crawl. If I nurse her most times I have to create and concentrate on another sensation, like digging my nails into my thigh just to get through a minute or two of nursing!

I'm sure a lot of it is that her latch has gotten sloppy. She leaves visible teethmarks on the top of my nipple. I've talked to her about having a wide mouth, show her the marks, ask her to be gentle. None of it works. She doesn't do distraction, snuggles, book reading, anything. DH sometimes has to take her out of the room screaming if I tell her "no num-nums right now". Honestly, she would nurse 24/7 if I let her.

I don't want to wean. But something's got to change! Help me please. The thought of weaning almost has me in tears, the thought of continuing nursing her has me cringing.

[Maela]

I know how you feel, kind of. Dd was probably not quite as intense about it as your DD, but nursing her during the second half of my pregnancy and especially after DS was born did make my skin crawl. I could not tandem nurse. Just too much for me. What I did was cut her nursing down to one 5 minute session before bed. That way we still had our special time. Of course, I did this a month or so before the baby was born, so maybe that made it a little easier. I told her that the new baby needed to nurse a lot more than just before bed because he couldn't eat anything else.

could you just have one or two (short) set times a day that she's allowed to nurse instead of weaning completely? You could gradually cut it down. I started out by cutting it down to just morning and before bed, and then cut it down to just before bed. We went on like that for months until I saw that she would be okay with me encouraging a complete stop. I think DS was about 3 months old when DD weaned completely.