Extended BF and Weaning?

kellystoo

I?m a mom of an almost 20 month old little girl who still nurses before her nap, bedtime and occasionally when she wakes up in the middle of the night.  My goal is to stop nursing by her second birthday as we are going to start trying for baby number two around that time?here is my problem?I?M SAD & she has never been put to bed (ever) without being nursed.  I don?t want to be nursing her while I?m pregnant and I don?t want to stop her cold turkey and traumatize her (& me).  My DD wouldn?t take a bottle all the way up until she was 9 months old and by that time it wasn?t even worth giving her one so we don?t have bottles and I don?t want to make a habit of giving her milk in a sippy cup due to the cavity risks of milk at bedtime.  My goal is to limit the time she nurses but I foresee this being a problem.  I?m looking advise from mom?s who extended bf & successfully weaned without (or at least with few) tears both me & my dd.  I love bf-ing her but really don?t want to be 6 months pg bf-ing and want to stop before I even become pg.

Cityplanner

I'm stopping nursing DD now. We're down to one AM feeding. I think we may move to stop that at 18 months, but I'm playing that by ear. DD started in daycare at 10 months. She didn't have a bottle much before then, but took a bottle at daycare and daytime weaned pretty easily between 12 and 13 months. For the bedtime feeding, we started having my husband put her to bed. I'd feed her, he'd read to her and rock her. It was a little fussing, but nothing awful. Then, around 16 months, she became less interested in the nursing and we just dropped it one night. We co-slept until two weeks ago (when she just stopped sleeping easily in our bed and was happier to go into her own) and I nursed at night until 16 months or so. I used Jay Gordon's method (more or less) to night wean. The AM feeding is the remaining one. She'll go back to sleep for about 40 mins if I nurse her, and I love my sleep, so I haven't pushed to stop this one. I think if I just got her up and dressed, she'd be good to stop.

I feel like in each case, she wouldn't just magically wean herself, but she was showing readiness and I just had to nudge. Maybe tackle one feeding at a time. Distraction is good also - whether it be a snack during the day or having DH take over bedtime. Out of sight, out of mind. Good luck!

BrittKav

Is there a specific reason you want to be done nursing before TTC? When I got pregnant, my supply eventually dropped so much that DD became less and less interested, but not in an upset way. She just didn't really think about it, since she was no longer getting much to eat at each feeding. At this point, I'm still BFing her, but only because I want to continue to BF her after the baby is born. I remind her to feed 2x a day, and she'll nurse for a little bit. If I didn't say anything, she wouldn't even think about it. If I wanted to wean, it would be very easy at this point due to my low supply and her lack of interest because of it. I guess what I'm saying is that if you got pregnant while BFing, it may be a very easy weaning process for both of you once your supply started to drop (which for most people is in the first month or so).

kellystoo

Low milk supply would make it much easier..I didn't take that into account!  Thanks for the idea!