Pregnancy while extended breastfeeding

blond1230

Have been trying to wean my two year old and just found out I’m pregnant. Any one experience this? Hoping this will allow help the conversation of ending BF so “new baby” can have it instead, but can’t help but feel guilty since she is so attached. Looking for advice on going cold turkey vs gradually stopping. LO nurses to sleep and then if she wakes up during the night, including to get her down to nap and bedtime.

meggyme

I weaned gradually, cutting out one feeding per week. I'd either offer a cup of something or distract in other ways. I worked on night weaning by making sure that she wasn't dependent on milk at night to go to sleep and would send DH in as often as possible to avoid it being an option for DD at all. Sometimes just rocking in the glider would be enough for my LO. I don't think that you necessarily want to blame the new baby for why they can't nurse because you don't want to breed resentment. While we haven't been nursing during this pregnancy, we've been doing a lot of "big girl" talk. You don't sleep in the crib because you're a big girl, you don't poop in your pants because you're a big girl, etc. Good luck!

blond1230

@meggyme thank you for the tips! i definitely  will be amping up the “big girl” talks. 

Wishilivedinflorida

I got pregnant while BFing my DS. My milk dried up pretty quickly and he self-weaned at 10.5 months to all bottles. He wasn’t really interested in dry nursing. You may want to start a new sleep routine that doesn’t involve nursing to sleep so that she isn’t dependent on this anymore. Some women have big drops in milk supply and others don’t, but you definitely want to prepare yourself in case it happens. Good luck!