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Originally Posted by
Jules09 
Thank you for starting this thread! I'm only 4 weeks pg, and already nursing is painful and there's not much milk. I think it's making my 25 month old DD grumpy that she's not getting as much milk as she's used to. Consequently she's asking to nurse ALL.THE.TIME., and it's becoming a real struggle. Who knows, I guess there could always be something else going on (illness, growing?). At this point, I only let her nurse between 6am and wake-up, before nap, after nap and bedtime. We've been doing things this way for several months now, initally to try to get my AF back (it only came back when she was 2). We night weaned at around 15 months, but all last night DD was up and asking for milk and throwing tantrums about it. I'm feeling pretty stressed right now!
By the way, we did the Jay Gordon method for night weaning, and it went very smoothly. We took it extra slow and spent extra time in each 'phase' as we needed to. DD started sleeping through the night (well, 8-10 hour chunks anyway) maybe a month or two after that.
Yeah, I think that I have definitely had a drop in supply, and that is why DS is getting really paranoid. Today I left him at my MIL's while I ran errands, and he usually doesn't even bat an eye when I leave him there, but this time he hugged my legs and didn't want me to go at all. I haven't really been limiting nursing sessions during the day, just cutting them short a little if he isn't actively suckling. He still nurses quite often during the day.
I have been looking at the Jay Gordon method, and my only concern is that DS doesn't actually wake up when he night nurses, so technically I can't put him back down awake...When he got sick, there was one night he couldn't breath well enough to nurse, and once he realized that, he only stirred one other time, grunted, and put himself right back to sleep. So I think we might have a nigh or two of protest, but once he realizes that he can't nurse, I am pretty sure that he will just start sleeping right through. I could really use that at this point!
I don't know about you, but I have a suspicion that my aversion to nursing so often is my body's way of saying "take it easy, lady!"
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Originally Posted by
cadybh DS is closing in on his third birthday. At this point he nurses 1-2 times per day and skips 1-2 days per week so it is not a huge strain on me. I have wondered for a while how much milk he could really be getting. It's much more of a routine/comfort/snuggle thing for us at this stage. I very much want to let him decide to wean, so I'm determined to stick it out even if it gets pretty rough. So far it's been okay, though I have noticed my nipples are very sensitive and if he bites or grazes with teeth it is really uncomfortable.
I night-weaned relatively early... at 10 months. I could not function at work the next day, DS was still up 2-4 times per night and nursing every 90 minutes all day and I just needed a bit more of a break. In the end it has allowed us to keep up a longstanding successful nursing relationship so I do feel it was the right thing for me to do at the time. But - kudos to still night nursing, I give you a LOT of credit! I am such a zombie right now if I don't get 8 hours of sleep. I get up once for the bathroom and I have a hard time falling back asleep. I can't imagine getting up and nursing and then trying to settle myself back down. How often is your little man requesting night nursing at this point? Do you think you could try to lower the frequency gradually?
We have had many diet issues to work through, and sleeping has never been our strong point, and since DS wasn't eating a lot of food during the day, I felt that nursing during that night was still important. I have never been a "good" sleeper myself, so it hasn't been a huge issue for me up until this point. I am also a SAHM, so that makes things significantly easier. For a long time DS was waking up to 6 times per night, then more recently he cut it down to the 2-4 times, with most of it being if he was restless in the morning. I think this is what induced ovulation for me. Since he has been sick, night time has been a nurse-a-thon again, with the exception of the one night he was to stuffed up to nurse at all. (I have to admit, that was absolutely amazing). Last night was a lot better, closer to a more typical night, so I am feeling a bit better about it.
During the day he is still asking an awful lot, and I think it's because he senses there is something amiss. I feel like he is asking every hour or so. And, like I mentioned before, I feel like my body is trying to tell me that I need to slow down a bit.
I never anticipated that we would catch the first PP egg, I thought that I would have at least one cycle as a heads up where I could consider how I felt about tandem nursing and what to do about supply, etc, and then adjust DS nursing patterns if necessary. I honestly don't think that DS will wean during this pregnancy, even if my milk dried up. I have always been "let's just take things as they come" kind of gal when it came to nursing, i never had specific goals....None of this means that I am not thrilled about this pregnancy, I am just feeling a bit conflicted about how this is going to impact DS, and whether or not my body can handle nursing him on demand while still sustaining this pregnancy. I guess I am a little paranoid about loosing the baby...
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