Mastitis and Nursing all night 2 year old

[norasmommy]

My 2 year old son has always nursed but kind of naturally weaned himself to only wanting to nurse at night (in order to fall asleep and stay asleep) and same thing at nap time.  I have recently been thinking about weaning him or partially weaning because it seems like neither or us get any sleep anymore (he will wake up at least 4-5 times in the night and cry until he is nursed back to sleep).  Normally I don't really mind bc we co-sleep (occasionally we put him in his big boy bed after he is asleep) but sometimes the nursing is so much at night that I feel really tired in the morning and my breasts even feel sore.  Then a couple days ago, my right breast felt very sore, the pain kept getting worse, and then I woke up with a fever.  My midwife said it was mastitis (a breast infection associated with nursing) and now I am on antibiotics to get rid of the infection.

I feel like this might be a sign to wean my son, especially since I had been thinking about it for a while now.  The problem is that he seems so dependent on it for falling asleep.  Whenever I have nursed him and he was not fully asleep before detatching him, he will cry, scream, tantrum until I nurse him again and he falls asleep completely.  Whenever I move in the bed the slightest bit, he wakes up enough to need to be nursed back to sleep.  I'm not sure what to do in terms of comforting him or helping him learn to fall asleep and stay asleep without always being nursed?

I don't necessarily want to wean him completely, but I can't continue doing what I'm doing at night.  Has anyone else experienced this? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

[Cynthia Mosher]

I went through much the same with one of my DDs. My solution turned out to be switching places with my husband after she fell asleep. Most of the time she would wake up and see him instead of me and then snuggle into him and drift off to sleep again. When she really wanted to nurse she would come looking for me. But it was only a time or two a week and pretty soon ended altogether.

[norasmommy]

Thanks for the tip Cynthia, we will try that!  How did you get your DD to fall asleep without nursing in the first place?  We are having a really hard time with that.  I have refused nursing a couple of times and DS will cry/scream, practically roll around on the floor for a really long time.  If I try to hold him, he just cries more.  I have tried rocking with him, singing, offering him a sippy cup of water (he never took a bottle), stuffed animals, etc. and nothing seems to stop the screaming.  The mastitis has gone away, but my midwife urged me to wean (if I was ready) since he tends to clamp down on my breast while nursing in his sleepy state and is likely what caused my infection.

I really want to make it as good a transition for him and me as possible...I really appreciate the advice from other mammas who have been there :)

[Cynthia Mosher]

I nursed her to sleep first and then we'd change places. After her sister came along (she was about 2 when she was born) she stopped nursing at night altogether. 

Try the switching places approach. Also, when I had mastitis I would explain it to my dd and let her know that it hurt and my ninna (that's what she called it) needed to rest so it could get better. Incredibly enough she understood that and would just hold it and go back to sleep. So maybe try that too. :)