Nursing mamas: Are you still?

[muppet729]

Just wondering if any other mamas out there are still nursing dc#1? I assume there are some. My dd will be 3 in two weeks and as if that wasn't enough to send most of my family over the top, she shows no sign of stopping and *gasp* I'm due soon!

I figure I"ve gone this far (and it's been painful a lot this pregnancy) so why would I force her to wean when she is facing the stress of the holidays, the stress of a new sibling, the flu season, etc, etc. That being said, I have to admit that if she had shown any signs of wanting to stop due to lack of milk or whatever, I would have encouraged it- at 3 I think she could wean and I'd be happy and OMG is it painful sometimes (although it has lessened recently- not completely gone away though)

Just wondering where you all are!

*sorry, I should have added a choice for those who haven't weaned but are still hoping to...*

[Ahappymel]

My boy is five and I really thought he was just about completely weaned around 4 1/2 until two things happened:

1) He started school (major transition)
2) I got pregnant. Now he wants to nurse to sleep at night.

So he is nursing about 4 nights a week and maybe a morning or two.
I do not have milk right now.

We'll see what he wants to do after the baby comes.

[skueppers]

About four months ago, it became clear to me that nursing was no longer working for either me or my daughter, who was about 20 months old at the time.

It had become excruciatingly painful for me, I barely had any milk left, and she was frustrated with nursing.

So one afternoon when she asked to nurse, I told her we couldn't nurse anymore because it hurt me too much. She was fine with doing something else instead. She did ask to nurse a few times the next day, I repeated the explanation and offered her another beverage or alternate activity. For the next week or so, she asked to nurse about once a day, I reminded her that we didn't anymore, and all was well.

It's been fine ever since -- it seems to me that she was ready to wean, but needed me to take the lead. In a way, I think the weaning had been taking place while she was still nursing, since my milk supply had basically dwindled to nothing. Early on in the pregnancy, she was clearly very distressed by the reduction in milk supply, in that she wanted to nurse all the time and got very clingy; that had long since resolved itself by the time I did wean her.

[angel0123]

Still bfing, yes at times its painful I just bite my lip and let him bf. I sometimes cut down the nursing telling him we have to save some for baby. He tells me one side is his the other the baby's. Tandem nursing here we come!

[tempestjewel]

Another vote for "tandem nursing here I come!". Dd will be three in a month as well, but still very much enjoys/needs to "eat eat". She knows that the baby can only have mama's milk when it is born and that she will be sharing, and seems perfectly content with that.

I stopped making "milk" many weeks ago, but she gleefully sucks the teaspoons of colostrum, and I feel good knowing she's getting a nice dose of antibodies when she needs them the most. Even when all of her little friends are getting colds and the flu, she may get a little ill for a day or two but she springs back up from it very quickly.

I'm actually growing quite excited for the bond the three of us will share tandem nursing.

[kalisis]

I'm getting excited about tandemning too. I can't wait to do it actually. DS sometimes goes to sleep without nursing, which is nice, but I enjoy that quiet time at the end of the day too.

He's taken to letting all of his dolls and stuffed friends have a 'turn' at the mommy milk and we always talk about how Baby Anna will need her turn too. And that she'll probably need lots of turns because she'll be so tiny. I think that he's going to be ok with the whole thing - he iniated the sharing with his dolls, not me.

As for me, well it used to be that my left nipple was in excruciating pain all the time, even when not nursing. I would not nurse on that side for days at a time unless he absolutely insisted. But now, it seems that the right is much more sore than usual, so we're using the left side more, but I find that my uterus feels funny when I lie on my left side, so ...who knows what is going on.

I can see DS still needs to nurse very much and DH has also made that realization. I don't think he'll be stopping anytime soon.

[tannersmommy]

I voted "Tandem Nursing, here I come." DS is 25 months, nursing about 3x/day, and I don't see any way that he is going to stop in the next couple of months. I would have been happy for him to wean during this pregnancy, but he obviously still needs to nur-nur.

[MacKinnon]

We weaned together... I wouldn't say I weaned her or she weaned on her own, she had dropped down to just nursing at nap and bedtime on her own. When it began to hurt too much to continue, I began to suggest skipping nursing and she was OK with it. Interestingly, after not nursing since August, she has suddenly become interested again. She has asked two or three times now and has asked me if the baby can have one "deedee" and she can have the other! I am not interested in tandeming, so the answer is no...

[JJ'sMom]

DS weaned on his own back in September. I am pretty sure he was not getting any more milk and decided that it was too much work to latch "nicely" every time. But no problems as he still gropes them when he needs comfort, which is rare.

I do wonder if he'll relearn when #2 arrives...and tandem.

Julia

[gothmommy]

DS#1 is almost 11 years old
Im still breastfeeding DS#3, though.