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Originally Posted by
mamahen2coop 
Quote:
Originally Posted by
teafairy Very newly pregnant, and nursing my 2yo ds. I do NOT want to tandem, though I think that is great and would try if he were younger. I am trying to figure out when the best time and way will be to wean. Thankfully, no nipple soreness yet, but when I was pregnant last time I had major breast soreness and wasn't nursing. I think about winter and want to keep his immune system up through cold season, but also want to wean well before baby #2, so there is no jealously or the like.
This is what I'm thinking. I'm not against tandem but I feel like since he'll be 23 months when #2 is born, it might be better jealousy wise to wean him before. What do you experienced mamas think?
If I did wean him before LO#2 I'd want to do it before April just because of our trip. but how in the heck do you do it?!?!
I know most people on MDC are not for mama-led weaning, so I'll just hope for no flames here...but I'll share my story.
With dd2 once she got to be about 15 months old I just had trouble with nursing her, mostly mentally I guess, though a toddler nursing feels really different than an infant. I was not pregnant but did have tons of stress in my life at that time. I started cutting just one nursing session a month. At 17-18 months, I nightweaned her, cold turkey, just told her mama's breasts needed to sleep for the night and she could have milk when she woke up. Obviously nursing down to sleep was the last 2 nursing sessions to go. At 22 months old, my husband started helping put her down every other night, so at that point, she was only nursing down to sleep at bedtime every other day, everything else was gone. When I just didn't do it one night, she wasn't too phased at all. It was a really gentle weaning, no tears involved, except for some mild protests when I nightweaned her, but she was easily soothed other ways and was old enough to understand what I was saying. I felt pretty good with nursing her until she was almost 2. You should feel no pressure to nurse him through your whole pregnancy if it doesn't feel right to you. I've never had the opportunity to tandem nurse, my milk always dries up during pregnancy and my babies wean on their own (hoping so badly that the current babe does now though! I'd really like to tandem this time), but I will say that I've never had any jealousy problems. So although people say that tandem nursing helps with jealousy, I wouldn't be too concerned that your son will have problems just because you don't. My kids have all adjusted to the new sibling just fine, even if they were still very mommy attached. My last child did not wean until I was 7 months pregnant and she couldn't remember how to nurse by the time the baby was born and never asked to (I offered a few times, kind of hoping). Nursing was all for the baby. I kind of thought she might be upset or want to nurse again, or something, but she didn't. I hope this helps just a bit. Of course, you'll have plenty of support here if you do choose to nurse him all the way through and tandem nurse, but maybe not as much support to go ahead and wean. It's a highly personal decision.
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