Still nursing past two - need advice on a few things

GabbyG

Hi I have 2 questions.

I thought this might be the most appropriate board to post this on. Most of the questions on the BF board are about early breastfeeding.

1. DS is 27 months old and still nurses at night always, sometimes in the middle of the night, and sometimes in the morning. Only one of my breasts still produces milk, and it's not much milk. I would like to begin the process of weaning, and am wondering if anyone has tips or a good article to point me to. Thanks!

2. My period returned when DS was 9 months old, and he is now 27 months. It's been somewhat irregular (sometimes bleeding for 12 days, then only a 24-day cycle.) I get headaches, and lately I've had a steep increase in migraines with auras. My neurologist thinks it's because of the extended breastfeeding and they are probably hormonal. He suggests I go ahead and wean.

I'm just wondering if  others who get migraines and did / do extended nursing have experienced any similar patterns, or lack of menstrual patterns, and increases in migraine frequencies. I'm looking for support and camaraderie, because to tell you the truth, these auras are pretty scary.

Billysbaby722

My mother has similar migraines, and breastfed my sister and I until we were both three. I have her right here, and she says that having children made the migraines worse, but breastfeeding never did. Also, it's a fact that if you're not nursing much, that your hormone levels are not very high. As she got older, the migraines disappeared completely. Hers were also treated pretty well with prescription medication and high doses of caffeine.

habsoilers

DD is 29 months and she's still nursing. I got my first pp period at 9 months as well. For the first few months they were fairly regular but then they went pretty wonky. My cycles would be 8 weeks, then 5 weeks, then 7 weeks, etc. I think just in the past couple of months they've regulated somewhat.

I can't speak to the headaches but I have noticed that my anxiety levels went up pretty much around the same time my cycles started going wacky. When I had bloodwork done, my doctor noticed that I had high levels of prolactin (duh, I'm breastfeeding). I'm kind of hoping that I'll feel somewhat normal again once I finish BF.

LittleEgypt

Billysbaby722:

it's a fact that if you're not nursing much, that your hormone levels are not very high.

This is what I was thinking, especially if you aren't making much milk. It seems like, if they were caused by BF hormones, that they would be getting better and not worse. I wonder what your neurologist's line of thinking is on that.

If you want to wean, go for it (I don't have any tips, unfortunately), but I would be wary of weaning just because of the headaches, and would probably get a second opinion. A girlfriend of mine weaned her DD at 22 months (she had planned to go to at least 2 years) so she could try an antidepressant. She was really worried about taking it while BF, even though it should have been safe. Well, she had an allergic reaction after a few days, and is now trying a naturopathic approach that would certainly be compatible with BF. She feels cheated that she weaned for nothing.

TayLynn

Billysbaby722:

it's a fact that if you're not nursing much, that your hormone levels are not very high.

This.

At 15 months when my son was nursing approx 4X/day, I had my hormone levels tested.  They all came back normal, including the prolactin which is the breastfeeding hormone.  If my RE hadn't known that I was breastfeeding she wouldn't have been able to guess it by the lab work.

I'm not a doctor, but I would venture a guess that the migraines have returned because you're breastfeeding less and having hormonal changes due to your cycle.  Pregnancy and lactation often give migraine sufferers a reprieve.

If you want to wean or partially wean, then do it because you want to.  Don't feel pressured to do it.  There are some gentle night weaning resources for older toddlers like Dr Jay Gordon and Dr Sears.  Getting more sleep might even help with your migraines.

We used Dr Gordon's techniques to reduce my son's nursing to 2X/day (before nap and bed time, no more night nursing) and it made the world of differrence to me.  I was able to get pregnant and continue nursing.

Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

iris427

1. I am working on weaning right now (my daughter is also around 27 months).  I started with "don't offer, don't refuse." I then progressed to offering her something to eat or drink when she wanted to nurse, or trying to distract her with something fun to play with--if that didn't work, I went ahead and nursed her.  She also started to phase nursing sessions out on her own.  For example, she dropped her bedtime nursing session all by herself.  To help her phase out nursing sessions, I started avoiding situations where she normally nursed.  Like I used to bring her to bed in the mornings to nurse, so I stopped bringing her to my bed and that got her to cut out her morning nursing session.

After this, I have started to actively refuse her or to cut a nursing session off after a few minutes.  She fusses some about that, but no more than she does if I tell her she can't have another cookie.  I've also started wearing clothes that have less access to the boob so she doesn't see them and think to nurse as often.

2. No advice on the migraines but I hope you can get that resolved. 

Angela814

Annalise nursed until 3y2m. I got my period back when she was 7 months old and had it regularly after that. (However, we spent about 6 months ttc when she was around 2 years old, and I didn't get pg. We took a break and got pg on the 1st cycle after she weaned. I'm thinking I wasn't ovulating every cycle.)

I had milk pretty much up until the end. We started weaning at 34 months, and I could still feel the letdown up until a couple months into the weaning process. Basically to wean I just stopped offering one regular nursing session and then used some distraction. She always nursed right after work, so if I didn't sit down and just started making dinner, we would just have dinner instead. Before bed I just stopped offering and layed down with her. Some nights she'd ask to nurse. Some nights she wouldn't. Eventually she didn't ask. I think at this point I probably didn't have much milk left. Some mornings she still nursed. Some she didn't. Then one day I realized she hadn't nursed in a few days, and she was done.

I've never had migraines. I have noticed that my body changed after each pregnancy, more so after DD2. My allergies have gotten much worse. I've been having sinus headaches in the evenings, possibly because my allergy medicine is wearing off. I'm more sensitive to changes in weather. Maybe that's pg related. Maybe that's post surgery since DD2 was a repeat c-section. I don't know. My mom said she didn't have any allergies until after my brother (her 3rd) was born. I'm thinking that pregnancy is pretty hard on our bodies, and all the hormones from those 9 months can cause some changes.

futrkingsley

DS is still nursing at 30 months.  I got my period back at 13 months and it has gotten progressivley worse since then.  I'm now having a 12 day bleed, with migraines at the beginning and throughout the bleed.  It sucks.  I saw my OB and while they found no cause for the excess bleeding, it had made me anemic and I had to treat that to control other symptoms (fatigue, hair loss, heart palpitations).

I'm not making that much milk anymore but DS and I are still attached to nursing some anyway.  I wish he didn't try as often but am loathe to cut it out completely.