what to do if you DONT want to wean?

There is an excellent book called "Mothering your nursing toddler" , I forget the author's name but you can find the book at Amazon.com by putting the title in the search engine. It talks a lot about nursing strikes in older babies, how to keep them interested, etc. My DS was exclusively breast-fed and nursed non-stop day and night till he was 12 mnths, then cut back drastically to only morning, nap, and bedtime nursings. He nursed like this till about 20 mnths, then started to lose interest completely and self-weaned by 22 mnths (however, I became pregnant again when he was 17 mnths and I do believe he would have continued bedtime nursings much longer if I hadn't had a dramatic loss in my milk supply). What I'm trying to say is, you can't force them to nurse if they aren't interested, but just because they cut back on the frequency of nursing doesn't mean that they will wean completely. Especially since they do nurse off to sleep and have that sleep association, I would place bets that you will be nursing them for at least another year if not longer.

Norma Jane Bumgarner is the author of "Mothering Your Nursing Toddler". It's a great book and one I pop open if I'm feeling lonely in the EBF camp .

From your description, it doesn't necessarily sound as if your girls will be weaning soon. It's very common for toddlers to nurse less when you're out and about with lots of fun things to look at and do. When you head back to the car after a few hours of shopping, etc. do they ask to nurse? My dd does even if she had just said she didn't want to a few minutes before getting into the car. My best advice would be to continue to offer, don't wait for them to ask if you feel that it's "time". My dd tends to need to nurse roughly every 1.5 hours to maintain her emotional equilibrium. Of course, she doesn't necessarily remember to ask. If she refuses, I just ask again in a little while. This doesn't happen at home, only when we're out.

Even if they are drinking less BM, the immunological properties are still being passed on to them and they will probably increase their nursing whenever they teethe or are exposed to some type of cold or virus. Maybe that's a hidden blessing with the winter coming! On that note, now that summer is gone (sniff, sniff) they may have more time to nurse.

Norma Jane Bumgarner is the author of "Mothering Your Nursing Toddler". It's a great book and one I pop open if I'm feeling lonely in the EBF camp.

From your description, it doesn't necessarily sound as if your girls will be weaning soon. It's very common for toddlers to nurse less when you're out and about with lots of fun things to look at and do. When you head back to the car after a few hours of shopping, etc. do they ask to nurse? My dd does even if she had just said she didn't want to a few minutes before getting into the car. My best advice would be to continue to offer, don't wait for them to ask if you feel that it's "time". My dd tends to need to nurse roughly every 1.5 hours to maintain her emotional equilibrium. Of course, she doesn't necessarily remember to ask. If she refuses, I just ask again in a little while. This doesn't happen at home, only when we're out.

Even if they are drinking less BM, the immunological properties are still being passed on to them and they will probably increase their nursing whenever they teethe or are exposed to some type of cold or virus. Maybe that's a hidden blessing with the winter coming! On that note, now that summer is gone (sniff, sniff) they may have more time to nurse.