Due in July & Nursing a Toddler?

[Pelgie]

Is anyone else due in July and nursing a toddler? DS just turned 2 and is down to nursing 3 times a day (before his nap, before bed, and in the early morning). Nipple tenderness is already making this a less enjoyable experience than it used to be. I've read the LLL book on Tandem Nursing and feel like I know most of the ups and downs to expect. My gut feeling tells me that I may wind up weaning DS before the other baby comes... but I'm a little worried about weaning. I'm afraid it might be difficult and DS relies on nursing to go to sleep. Anyone else facing this dilemma or who has been through it in the past?

[ccohenou]

My guy's younger than yours, but yes we are nursing. He's 13 months, nurses A LOT lately. I'm just starting to get some nipple soreness, but nothing intolerable. It does get wearing when he comes up asking to nurse for the third time in an hour though.
I read Adventures in Tandem Nursing, and to be honest I came away from it thinking tandem nursing sounded awful. But weaning such a little guy sounds awful too, so I don't know what we'll do.

[grian]

I am nursing my 23 mo dd and due in July. She nurses about three times a day, and I have noticed she does not latch on for long at all any more, maybe 2-3 min. (she never nursed for more then 5-10 min at a time though). I am certain she will wean by the end of this pregnancy.

When I was pregnant with dd (above) I was still nursing my ds. He was always an avid nurser constantly on the breast from the beginning. He nursed all through my pregnancy up untill month 8. I gently encouraged him to wean with distraction, counting, and keeping busy. He was never conditioned to nurse to sleep so I think this helped along with little to no milk. He did resume nursing when dd was 1.5 mo but only occassionally, like when he was sick or hurt. I definitely discouraged nursing at other times, I could not tolerate all of the touching and neediness of two nurslings NB and 21 mos. He eventually weaned entirely at 2.5yo.

I think that it is important to acknowledge the needs of both people in the nursing relationship. I would not advocate continuing to nurse if either party is unconfortable. It takes quite a bit out of some women to nurse while pregnant and or to tandem nurse. This is ok, and must be respected.

I made sure to space #3 with enough "room" for her to nurse for at least two years. I am comfortable with this, and feel she and I have had a wonderful nursing relationship. I do not feel any guilt about the possibility that she will likely wean soon because I am pregnant again.

[Megieblue]

I am nursing my 29 month old DS #2 now and due in July with #3. I nursed DS#1 throughout my second pregnancy and was convinced I'd be tandem nursing. It didn't end up that way. DS wearned when I was about 7 months along. Remember that you have a long ten months ahead of you and DS might self wean. My DS seemed to really lose interest when I entered my third trimester. DS #2 is nursing now and going strong. I think the next year will bring about many changes and I highly doubt he'll be tandem nursing... but we'll see...

One thing about nursing throughout my second pregnancy was that I could always calm my toddler down to snuggle with me. In my first trimester I was a zombie and really needed to lie still so I wouldn't get sick. DS gladly obliged. Tee Hee...

[Pelgie]

Glad to see there are others in the same boat...

It's good to hear from others in the same boat. I'd be interested to hear how each of your adventures go as you progress into your pregnacy and when/if any of you wind up weaning and how that goes. I'll of course share the same.

Right now my thoughts on the matter are all over the map. Last night when nursing DS down to sleep he took a lot longer to fall asleep that usual. I got to a point where I couldn't take his nursing any longer (after 20-30 minutes or so) and I made him stop. He wasn't too happy about this but I felt like I was going to jump out of my skin if I kept nursing any longer. I wound up singing him to sleep (by cycling through about 50 animals worth of old mcdonald). Then today for his nap he nursed to sleep in less than 10 minutes and it was a piece of cake.

I guess I'll just take it 1 day at a time.... but I'm a "planner" type who usually prefers to at least have a strategy of some kind to follow. Some things in life you just can't plan.

[Ary99]

You are not alone. I am nursing my 27 month old DS and am worried about the whole what if thing. What if he stops? He'll never nap again! What if he doesn't? I'll be totally overwhelmed nursing a newborn and an almost three year old giant. It is easier to distract him now; really the only time he ever needs it is to nap. And right now, I need to be napping too. . .

[nfpmom]

I'm still nursing DS, who is 16 months. I've been experiencing mighty sore nips the past few weeks but its not unbearable.

Take care

[rareimer]

jasmyn is 20 months, and still nurses for the bulk of her nutrition, as she has some feeding issues. she can eat a little bit of food, but still nurses ALOT. she has been nursing even more for the past week or so, probably pregnancy related. i sure hope my milk isn't drying up already...not only do i not want her to wean, but i want to make sure she is still getting some nutrition from me, because of her issues.

but she has been wanting to nurse like every FIVE MINUTES...that's all i've done, i swear, for the past 3 days. i hope this won't last too long...i don't mind nursing her often, but this is ridiculous! but i really really hope she doesn't wean on her own either, i really would like her to continue nursing until her body tells her it's time to wean.

[Marielena]

My dd is 20 months and is also still nursing a lot. I've been having soreness lately, but have been using lansinoh and it hasn't gotten unbearable yet - I just hope it doesn't get worse!

I'm nervous about how it will all work out as well, but I'm trying to just go with the flow and not stress about it. But that is easier said than done

[candipooh]

Originally Posted by rareimer

but she has been wanting to nurse like every FIVE MINUTES...that's all i've done, i swear, for the past 3 days. i hope this won't last too long...i don't mind nursing her often, but this is ridiculous! but i really really hope she doesn't wean on her own either, i really would like her to continue nursing until her body tells her it's time to wean.

I am not 100% sure I am pregnant yet (going to buy a test today) but my 17 month daughter is nursing every 5 minutes too. It has been going on for about a week. It is driving me crazy. Every time I sit down she signs "nurse" everytime I walk past her, everytime I pick her up. Ugh.
I too would like to keep nursing her through the pregnancy but 6-10 times a day please.

She just climbed into my lap so I am now nak-ing.

[Max's Mami]

Maxi wont be 2 for another 2 weeks. I was still nursing him when I got pregnant in Sept. but only really about 1 time a day and some days not at all. Then I had a miscarriage and was on pain medication and didnt want him to get that in his system as it was really strong medication. It was tough the first day and then he was over it. He is at preschool all day and really only nursed one time - when I got home from work. So he was pretty close to stopping on his own. I probably upped it by a couple of weeks at the most.

Now he just looks down my shirt every once in a while and says "milky?" and goes about whatever he is doing.

I guess my situation is not very similar to yours just wanted to say that if you can slowly cut out one session then another and are down to one it probably wont be too difficult to wean him. The tough part is that he relies on it to go to sleep so you will probably have to first work on a new sleep routine.

Good luck!

[BinahYeteirah]

bs"d

Yep, I'm nursing my 28 month old dd. She still nurses a great deal, so I feel that it is likely that we will continue throughout the pregnancy, but who knows. Hopefully, I won't be blessed by very much m/s this time, because being ill makes me feel I need more space. Then again, it's great to get them to be still in some way when pregnant and tired or feeling "off".

[Selissa]

ds is almost 22 months ans still nursing alot..we have no plans to wean..in fact if he did i woudl be a bit sad about it and hope that he wnt back to it after the baby came since he would in no way be ready to wean if i wans't pregnant

[Mer]

DS was still doing quite a bit of night nursing but not much in the day when I got pg with #2. With that pg I did not feel too well and my nipples and boobs hurt a lot. In fact it was awful. I suspect now it had to do with the fact that it was a partial molar. At any rate I had to night wean DS because I just couldn’t take it anymore. The 1st night was very hard, the second was better, and by the third he seemed ok with it. After that we just nursed to sleep at bed time and nap time. After a while the bedtime nursing seemed to go on forever so I started to limit it. 1st 20 minutes, then 15 and so on. Now its almost a year since that pg began and I think he’s about weaned. At this point, I am kind of ready even though it’s not painful at all with this pg. However, his latch has been horrible ever since I completely dried up with the last pg and his nursing does just get on my nerves. The few times he does nurse he’s on for about a second, then looks at me and says “That’s enough Mommy.” So, cute. I never really limited the nap time nursing because he always feel asleep so easily then. But now he falls asleep without even asking to nurse. Kind of sad.

[Skim]

Greetings!

I, too, am facing this. I just got confirmation I'm pregnant. My dd will be 3 in February so I'm not sure if she still qualifies as a toddler.

No nipple soreness - yet. I suspect dd will nurse as long as possible because she has always been an avid nurser. She doesn't nurse to sleep at night, but she does for her nap. So.. not sure what will happen. But I'm keeping an open mind.

[Pelgie]

Started to Night Wean

My breasts have also been quite tender and the Adventures in Tandem Nursing book has me scared that the real soreness kicks in during the 2nd trimester. Have those of you who have nursed through pregnancies before found this to be true?

At any rate, because of this and also because I'm sooo tired, I decided to night wean ds. He has been doing a lot better with natureally not night nursing too often for the past few months on his own (just once or twice compared to his every hour or two when he was a baby). So I just started talking to him at night the past few weeks when he woke up and asked to nurse. I'd offer water and explain that big boys need to try to settle to sleep without nursing and the mommy would hold him, rub his back, etc. There was some fussing over this but not too bad. Then, in the morning when he is fully awake I've been telling him what a good job he is doing going back to sleep on his own and letting mommy sleep too. The last couple of nights he hasn't asked to nurse at all. Yeah!

I'm still wanting to nurse him down for his nap and down for the night but I"m happy to get more sleep at night... so I feel the night weaning was the right thing for me.

[wawoof]

Hi everyone. I had to night wean and greatly reduce DS's nursing down to one nursing/day (first thing in the morning) to become fertile again. We followed Dr. Jay Gordon's night-weaning method (www.drjaygordon.com), and it worked great, except for a couple of relapses due to travel and illness. To cut out the daytime nursings, I used distraction and substitution (sippy cup or food) plus the fact that DS is with other caregivers (DH or daycare) several days/week. To cut out the nursing to bed, I started strolling or driving DS to sleep like DH does. At this point, I would love to nurse DS to sleep because I'm sooooooooo tired in the evenings because of the pregnancy. But I have had some unexplained bleeding in this pregnancy and I know my body is very reactive to nursing (in terms of the infertility effects), so I'm afraid to increase DS's nursing now, for fear of causing a miscarriage. I would love to keep nursing DS through this pregnancy and then tandem afterward, if it isn't too painful nursing during the pregnancy. Not too bad so far, though I noticed my nipple was sore after this morning's nursing.

[momin99_03]

Wow! A lot of us in the same boat!

I am due with #3 in July and my DS who is 20 months is still nursing 2 times per day...well it was only 2 times per day until the last week or so, but since then he is always asking to nurse. My BB's are just getting sore, and I really do not know if I can handle the tandem nursing. I am hoping he will wean as my pregnancy progresses (am I mean and/or selfish for wanthing this ). I WOHM part time and my DH works nights, so I am already exhausted!

Glad to hear others are going to be there with me for the journey!