Weaning before the next pregnancy?

[EmFriend]

HI, I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice.  I am currently breastfeeding my 13 month old daughter, Violette.  She has been drinking cow's milk, rice milk, and soymilk as well, from a cup, for about 2 months and enjoys a very wide range of foods.  She has recently begun to show less interest in the breast as she just wants to be moving and playing and exploring all the time so lately she only nurses in the morning, in the evening (not at bedtime), and sometimes when I offer it during the day (although most of the time during the day she will gladly accept it and only suck for about 3 seconds before she's off to do something else). :) My question is about weaning her before my next pregnancy.  In an ideal situation, I would probably try and breastfeed my daughter until she absolutely doesn't want it anymore, but the problem is, I want to have at least one more child.  I have been told that I need at least two years in between pregnancies for my body to build up its store of nutrients to support a fetus. That means waiting until December of this year to get pregnant.  But I've also always been told that breastfeeding depletes your stores of nutrients as well so I'm not sure where that comes into the picture. Do I need to wean now to allow my body the recoup time by December?  I had Intrauterine Growth Restriction with Violette due to high blood pressure and am high risk already because of that and because of my age.  IUGR makes it hard for the baby to get all the nutrients they need and causes their growth to be restricted.  Violette was born one month early at 4 lbs because of it. I don't want to add any more risk to the new baby who will most likely also have to contend with IUGR.  I was wondering what anyone thinks of weaning at 13 months because of these circumstances.  My mother is a breastfeeding consultant and lactivist and she always advocates letting the child wean themselves, but I don't know if that is the right way for us.  Any advice would be appreciated. :)

[3girls1boy]

I would recommend "Mothering Your Nursing Toddler"  despite what you might think from the title, there is a lot of good advice about Mommy-led weaning with love and respect.