Any nursing mamas trying to make it through w/o weaning?

[aran]

So are there any nursing mamas here planning to keep nursing an older ds (or more than one!) while pg? I am, and I haven't done this before, but from what I understand, it can be very hard, so I wanted to start a thread so we know we're not alone.

As for me, I have a ds almost 2 years old who still nurses a lot... numerous times at night, and 6-10 or more times during the day. So far, my milk is still there, but nipples are getting painful. It's nothing I can't handle, unless ds feels sick and nurses for 2 hours straight like he did three nights ago :dizzy:

I am hoping that the pregnancy and changes to the "momo" taste and supply aren't too traumatic for ds. Whenever I start to feel guilty, I remind myself that a lifetime of sibling is more valuable than a few months of momo interruption.

[rrmrose]

My daughter Hannah is 18 months and is nursing only in the morning when she wakes up. I will continue to let her nurse as long as she wants, but that is easy since its only once or twice a day. I have to say I thought that as soon as I got pregnant my milk would all dry up, But that is not the case for us.

Rachel

[Mizelenius]

Yup! DD is only 14 months and I'd like to get her to at least 2 yrs. I've heard the milk starts to go at 4 months . . .I plan on eating a lot of oatmeal to keep it coming, if possible.

Nursing during the night is always annoying to me past a yr but we do it SO OFTEN anyway. I am not against night-weaning . . .not soon but eventually.

[an_aurora]

Hi everyone! I'm so glad they made this thread finally :) Anywhoo, my daughter is turning 1 next month, and she is still nursing strong. I really want her to continue nursing as long as possible, but everyone is telling me either that she will wean because my milk will taste funny/dry up, or they are telling me I need to wean because it's too hard on my body. I don't want to wean and I'm going to keep nursing anyway, but it's discouraging to hear all this negative advice!

[aran]

After the past few nights, I would consider nightweaning, too :dizzy: I am hoping ds is just teething w/ his 2-year molars, so it is a passing phase. My milk is so much more plentiful at night, I will make night-weaning a last resort.

an_aurora - sorry you aren't getting good support IRL. I don't know why so many people insist on predicting other people's failure and acting like :gloomy: I know it's possible ds will wean because supply drops or tastes change, or that I will want him to wean because it is too much for me, but maybe not!! I think it certainly isn't worth going into this with the attitude that it won't work! Then it definitely won't work. Good luck overcoming your negative IRL influences on this issue! I've got them too, but I've stopped talking to these folks about this issue :wink

[melanie83103]

I admire you for trying to make it work! :thumb My son is older (he's almost 3), but I'm planning to wean him before the baby comes.... Good luck! I hope you will be a successful tandum nurser!

[Samjm]

I have a 21 month DD who still loves her 'na-nas'. I'm already feeling a sense of discomfort when she nurses, but I'm trying to push through that. I know that she would be devastated without being able to nurse, so I'm going to try and keep going all the way too.

[audeesmom]

Hi everyone, this thread is great! I am also nursing my toddler, 2 1/4. We decided to start night weaning last week. It was awful at the time, but not too bad now. Just to clarify, any crying longer than 5 minutes is hard for me to take, but dd was nursing at least 3 to 6 times at night and alot during the day plus a huge amount of food...no wonder she is big for her age. (She looks over age 3 and talks very well, so people expect more...but that's another subject). She is starting to understand and actually slept a full 8 hours 2 nights in a row!!! We substitued having "Boobahs" for just holding "Boobahs". It seemed to be a little bit of comfort to her during this hard time for dd.
I hope to keep on nursing during the day time until she loses interest.

[ccemama]

I am planning on nursing dd. She will only be 11 months next week. Ds nursed for over 3 years so I think I would feel pretty guilty if dd didn't get to have her fair share of nursing. I am actually more worried about what nighttime will be like. Dd will only be 19 months when the baby is born. I can't imagine night weaning her soon. How am I going to deal with her and a newborn wanting to nurse at night? Anybody have any experience with this?? :p

[aran]

Yeah, if I allow myself, I worry about nighttime too. But I figure that I will just let the cards fall where they may... and deal with it if it becomes a problem. Every time I have tried to anticipate and trouble-shoot problems with ds in advance, it has backfired, so I am trying to force myself to roll with it and hope for the best!!

[Mindi22]

Well, we just got a BFP this morning. I've been noticing that DS (19 mos) hasn't been very interested in nursing lately, although truthfully, the last two months or so he's been either really excited about nursing or totally disinterested. There has been very little in between.

I'm going to keep offering, but we'll see. My guess is that with the already waning interest, if the pregnancy messes at all with either the taste or the amount of milk (and I'm told it does both), DS will be weaning sooner rather than later.

-Mindi

[Full Heart]

My ds is only 9 mos old (be 10 mos in 11 days) so I hope he continues to nurse for a while. I have nursed through 5 pg for various lengths of time but never gotten past 7 mos. They always wean. So I hope to go for at least that long this time.

[cinnamonamon]

I nursed through my pg w/ ds2. Lost most of my milk around 4 mths, although if I hadn't allowed myself to get so rundown, I probably could have kept it a bit longer. He comfort/dry nursed morning, middle of the night, & to go to sleep all through. It was actually a good prep. for tandeming, as I taught him to stop when I asked him to (I'd say "almost done" and then count to 10 as slowly as I could stand it). I night weaned him when he was about 21 months -- 1 month before ds2 showed up. I didn't think I could deal w/ 2 nursing at night. He still woke, but he just crawled in bed w/ me & cuddled up.

I'm kinda hoping ds1 will fully wean when I lose my milk this time, but I'd feel a bit guilty if ds2 did. We'll see -- I'm certainly not going to encourage weaning, but I will be setting some limits soon -- the nipple twiddling is going to come to a very abrupt end! :lol

[hapahaolegirl]

DD is 22 months and nurses to sleep at night only. I'll let her nurse as long as she needs to!

[Mizelenius]

Full Heart . . .did it ever get painful? That's what my friends have told me happened to them.

[shalena]

Add me to the list. DS is 18 months and still nurses all the time. I'm planning on adding nursing tea to my daily routine, as well as a bowl of oatmeal and more milk two (http://www.motherlove.com/product_more_milk_two_glycerite.php).

[Full Heart]

Full Heart . . .did it ever get painful? That's what my friends have told me happened to them.

Depended on the pg. Sometimes it was so painful I could barely stand it. Right now its only painful on latch on. But its always gone away after the 1st trimester.

[Brisen]

Hi all... glad to see there's a support thread here :thumb

I've nursed through two (completed) pgs so far without weaning, though each time my milk has dried up at the start of the second trimester. But that doesn't seem to discourage my nurslings. Right now, Cuddlemonster nurses a lot, but is not waking up so often at night to nurse. CatKing is actually still nursing, but not very often. He complains when there's no milk, and he said he'll stop nursing when he's 5, so I have a feeling that he'll wean before the baby is born.

[pianojazzgirl]

My dd is 21 months and is nursing 1 time a day now. She nursed through my last pg which ended in m/c at 8 wks, but this time around she is already losing interest. She didn't even nurse yesterday or today. I don't even know if the pg hormones would have started affecting anything by then! So, I'm waiting to see if she'll continue nursing throughout this pg.

[bjunkie]

My daughter at 26mos. still nurses ALOT. My cycles just returned a few months ago.

How far along are you? MY nipples were actually more sensitive when I first suspected I might be pregnant. Now they aren't that sensitive, still but more tolerable. I thought maybe because she nurses so much there isn't that much of a change to the breasts/ducts if I would be not nursing so much or not at all. They don't feel full really. Hanging a little lower ; ) and a little bit darker (aerola, plus it is larger) I am very early in the pg.... just found out. Very early. I am like 17dpo(days past ovulation) at this point. I am also 44yrs old(I got pg when I WAS 43!) I am thinking maybe it is because I am going to mc?

Just wondering if anyone had any experience with nursing and not so sore nipples, breasts if child is nursing tons?

Might be grasping..... I was actually not expecting this pg, didn't think I could even get pg one month without protection (at my age ; ) I would have never planned when dd is still so young (imo). I thought we were done (still might be) with our family.

bjunkie
(birthjunkie)
Last daughter 2 yrs ago was birthed at home ; ) Our first homebirth! Wish we would have had all our children at home.

[Brisen]

bjunkie, I found that my nipples/breasts weren't all that sore in pg's I nursed through. I did find, though, that the nurser would have a sloppy latch, once they weren't trying to get milk out because it was dried up. They also weren't as full feeling as they were during my first pg or when I was nursing before getting pg, again because my milk dried up.

[raversangel]

i'm not going to wean...i tried to stop last night and felt so darn guilty it made me sick :gloomy: so we will continue to nurse until we aren't able :D

[aran]

:hug raversangel

So far, nursing hasn't been too painful here, but I expect that it's going to get difficult. Good luck keeping your nursling going... I hope it goes smoothly! :thumb

[aran]

My daughter at 26mos. still nurses ALOT. My cycles just returned a few months ago.

How far along are you? MY nipples were actually more sensitive when I first suspected I might be pregnant. Now they aren't that sensitive, still but more tolerable. I thought maybe because she nurses so much there isn't that much of a change to the breasts/ducts if I would be not nursing so much or not at all. They don't feel full really. Hanging a little lower ; ) and a little bit darker (aerola, plus it is larger) I am very early in the pg.... just found out. Very early. I am like 17dpo(days past ovulation) at this point. I am also 44yrs old(I got pg when I WAS 43!) I am thinking maybe it is because I am going to mc?

Just wondering if anyone had any experience with nursing and not so sore nipples, breasts if child is nursing tons?


I think I O'ed on June 9, so I am... about as far along as can be and still have a March EDD. I am (and since O, have been) only sore right at latch-on and that's it... I have darker nipples, too. Other than that, no difference from before. From what I've read, I think it's common for the most painful nursing to be later on in the pregnancy, when the milk starts to dry up, so I am not sure I would worry too much about "ease" of bf now being an indicator of mc. But that's just my take, and I haven't been through this before.

Congrats on your BFP!

ETA: Re-reading this thread, I see lots of variations - Brisen had no pain, Full Heart had pain in 1st trimester only... seems highly individual.

[Bennifer]

I've got a 15 month old that is still nursing pretty frequently, day and night. Although recently is has decreased a bit, it's actually manageable for me now! I'd love to nurse through the pregnancy and tandem nurse (or at least I *think* i do!) Where can I get good info on how to keep my milk supply up? B/c ds isn't vaxxed I really want to make sure he nurses until at least 2.

[cinnamonamon]

I've got a 15 month old that is still nursing pretty frequently, day and night. Although recently is has decreased a bit, it's actually manageable for me now! I'd love to nurse through the pregnancy and tandem nurse (or at least I *think* i do!) Where can I get good info on how to keep my milk supply up? B/c ds isn't vaxxed I really want to make sure he nurses until at least 2. I'd lurk on the breastfeeding beyond infancy & the child-led weaning boards... ;)

[shalena]

A friend just told me her naturopath told her there is a link between B6 and lowered milk supply. Has anyone heard this?

I stopped taking the supplements, just in case.

[aran]

Thank you Shalena!

And now, :cuss :bang :demon

My milk supply took a huge nosedive this week. DS has been crying in the middle of the night because he can't get a letdown. I was sad, but just thought it was the inevitable result of being pg. Well, now I am sure that it's B6! The supply drop coincides with me starting to take the 6-a-day rainbow light prenatals, which have a whopping amount of B6 in them. :bang

I did a quick search and came up with this:

Another group of drugs that should be avoided because they can suppress milk production are ergotamines (for migraine), birth control pills with a high estrogen content (most birth control pills are OK), vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) in large doses, and many antidepressants.

and also this:

Do not take vitamin B6 supplements, as they may contribute to lowered milk production.

Does anyone know of a prenatal vitamin made for nursing mothers? The last type I bought had peppermint, and that's listed as a supply decreaser on the kellymom site.

I just want a vitamin with all the good stuff but nothing that will encourage DS to wean prematurely.