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Anyone still nursing? Is it driving you nuts?

540 views 9 replies 8 participants last post by  tallulahma 
#1 ·
Our almost two-year old still nurses quite a bit. The problem comes at night. Her sleep's been off lately so she hasn't been going to sleep til after 11. DH & I will start trying to calm her down before bed but she always revs back up once we get there. DH has to get up at 5 for work, so he goes right to sleep. That leaves me with the decision to leave the tv on for a little light & quiet music (the public access/announcement channel) and let her run around the room til she's sleepy again or shut off the tv & let her nurse, which is what happens with bored toddler in dark room. If I don't let her nurse, she turns into screaming banshee child who needs "bee" (boobie) & who refuses any other comfort offered. If I do let her nurse, she latches on but seems to do everything but nurse - wiggles, mangles my breast, plays with my nipple with her tongue (or that's what it feels like) - argh, it drives me nuts! I know part of my reaction is pregnancy-related (see this article), but that doesn't make it any easier.

Tonight, I should've just left on the Pats/Colts game. At least then, we both would've had more fun, since we weren't going to get to sleep til after 11:30.
 
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#2 ·
LOL, I could've written your post word for word. My dd is 15months and still nursing though for some reason I've not had milk since she was 10 months, so I'm just a pacifier for her and don't get me wrong I still love the bonding that goes on between us... but man is it driving me up the wall, it seems that my nipples are much more sensitive right now, I remember that when I was preggo with her near the end, I could have on a padded bra and shirt and still feel if something was touching me. UGH

I have the same issue at night where she will lay there to nurse but then wiggle around, kick her feet, shake her head while nursing, it takes about 15 min. at least of this before she's finally worked off the extra energy and zonks out, in the mean time I'm tryin not to go crazy... I've found that ME watching some tv while she tuckers down helps a lot to distract me and then we both fall asleep comfortably (I have a timer on my comp and it turns off after whatever amount of minutes I choose).

Dh is at work till midnight most nights so I'm always the one putting the kiddos to bed which usually consists of us all cuddling up in bed and watching I dream of Jeannie. For now, that's what's workin for me.
 
#3 ·
My youngest recently turned two and he's still nursing. I don't tend to be very bugged by nursing during pregnancy, but it is starting to get painful.

Does she have a nap during the day? R seems to be transitioning out of a nap, and on the days that he does nap, he stays up pretty late. We just keep him with us until he settles down on his own; I end up nursing him to sleep on the couch with dh and putting him down upstairs. He has never fallen asleep well in bed, though -- he would do the wiggling around and then get up and want to explore around the dark room. If I put him to sleep in the living room with the tv on and dh and the cat around, though, he settles down and goes to sleep.


I've really cut down the daytime nursing, though, because that does bug me and he's often not latching properly, and will do something else if I suggest it. Since my milk is gone, I'll offer him water or milk or food. If he wants to nurse for comfort, I'll say "just a little bit," and nurse him for a minute or two, and then say "OK, all done! Let's go play with trucks/read a book/look out the window," etc. That doesn't work too well at night, though. If you can sleep in with her in the morning, I would just stay up with her at night until she is ready to sleep.
 
#4 ·
Phew, I'm glad you responded! I've posted similar posts on different forums & have received no responses - I was starting to feel pretty lonely.


She still naps, though her sleep's been a little off since the time change. I like the tv timer idea, though the tv being on seems to keep her going longer. But hey, I'm starting to think that if it helps my sanity, staying up later will be worth it.

I'm pretty sure I'm producing colostrum now - it's hard to express anything, but that's what it looks like. I've asked her if the milk tastes different & she says yes. I was hoping that the arrival of colostrum would help ease the annoyance, but it's only seemed to have gotten worse. Hopefully there's only a few more weeks.
 
#5 ·
My DD is 2.5yrs now and has started to really assert herself and "act up" very difficult especially since she was such an easy baby and especially difficult since I am 34wks preg and having painful contractions when she nurses. We got into a great routine of only nursing a little in the evening before bed and a little in the morning. Then I got pregnant and would pass out while nursing so we got back into the bad habit of nursing to sleep. Then two weeks ago she started getting really angry when I would unlatch her after she fell asleep and flailing/hitting/kicking when she work up without my nipple in her mouth.

Long and short is I had to draw a hard line. As exhausted as I was this was not tolerable behavior especially with a baby coming. So I just had to suck it up last week with some clear rules. Nursing only sitting and if she was so tired she wanted to sleep she had to lie down without nursing but I would rub her back and sing her a song or tell her story. This would take 2 hours and I was dying of exhaustion. Anyway- on the bright side- she doesn't nurse to sleep- so minimal accidental chewing. No waking up with violent fits on the middle of the night- no kicking and screaming. Still exhausting for me to get up and soothe but hey I pick my battles.

Let's see what happense when #2 comes. *sigh*
 
#7 ·
Still nursing my 18 month old. I lost my milk at around 17 weeks but got it back a month or more ago, so now he really is showing an interest. We only nurse in the morning when he wakes up, he wakes up about an hour or two before its time for everyone to get up so he nurses during that time.
 
#8 ·
Yes! I'm still nursing DS, who is 3.5. He'd almost weaned until apparently colostrum came in and now he's back to being super-interested. It really hurts--almost like a let-down kind of hurt--but IIRC, that will stop when babe is born. And then, because I always have oversupply issues, DS will provide the service of a very efficient and easy pump.
 
#9 ·
ds (2.5) only really nurses to go down for naps and at bedtime. i've had to just be forceful about nursing time is nursing and going to sleep time NOT wiggling time. if he gets out of hand i point it out and unlactch him if i have to..... sometimes it takes a few trys....

3 or 4 times i have had to just tell him my nurses have to go to sleep now because hes just stayed awake and nursed which hurts me too much these days. in those cases i've layed down and dozed and ds could do whatever as long as we was on the bed and not running his toy cars over my face. it takes SOoooooooo long for him to fall asleep that way but after and hour of nursing i hurt too much.
 
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