ExtendedBFers: Please reassure me my son will wean!

Re: ExtendedBFers: Please reassure me my son will wean!

• terri_doula2010 member

  March 2012

  At 23 months my son just went down to a very manageable once or twice a day.

   I think it has been a combination of things, so I don't know how many of these will apply to you.

  First of all let me say that until about 2 weeks ago he was nursing 3-4 times a day and he has been an "opportunity nurser" for a long time. God forbid he see my breasts. Or I talk about it. Or he sees another baby/toddler nurse. Or he is bored. We tried deflection a lot with varying results. 

  The things that have changed:

  1. I'm pregnant. I'm 15 weeks now and my already limited supply tanked quite a while ago. It really didn't slow him down, though, until recently (and ow!).

  2. We went on a trip. The biggest problem I had with nursing is middle of the night nursing. He would wake up and be panicky adamant about nursing or else be awake for hours on end. Sometimes we'd have to try for a long time to unlatch him in his sleep without him freaking out. It was stressful and exhausting for all of us (and DH doing night waking stuff didn't help at all). On the (cross country) trip, the first 4 nights he slept in the same room with my mom in a toddler bed. He woke up the first night but went back down easily for her. Since then he only had a few rough nights, and we were able to get him back to sleep (once in our bed in a hotel room, the rest in his own bed) without nursing. All of this wonderful sleep stuff coincided perfectly with him slowing down daytime nursing as well. I don't offer, but he generally asks for at least morning or evening sessions, and sometimes both. It works out perfectly for both of us at this point.

  3. Age. I think he just got to the age where he could handle our relationship shifting. He was an AVID nurser from the beginning, and it really didn't slack off much between about 8 months and a few weeks ago.

   

  I don't know if any of this was useful, but I hope it is at least heartening. And hey, if you do conceive and he is still a nurse-o-holic, maybe that will help!
  

   

  

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• poison489

  March 2012

  Feeling rather envious of those of you that have to nurse so few times a day.  DS is 25 months and still nurses around 6-8 times a day.  He eats regular meals and snacks, but loves nursing.  Especially for naps and bed time.  Just recently he is also cutting down his night time nursing from 3 times a night, to just once last night. 

  Good luck on weaning your DS, and I look forward to reading more of the suggestions from other moms that have been successful in cutting down the number of nursing a day.
  

  

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• nosoup4u member

  March 2012

  Well, give it a few weeks (as hard as it may be) for him to get back into his new rhythm of nursing less if he was sick. My younger son just got over bronchitis, and it definitely increased his nursing during and since then.

  Do you guys get out of the house in the afternoon? I know if we're busy and out of the house, DS forgets to nurse a lot of the time (and DS1 was like that, too). I also did a lot of "here's a delicious cookie!" with DS1 to distract him from late afternoon sessions. And I know I eventually had to put my foot down and refuse his usual after-dinner session, but I don't remember how I did it. Changing the situation (not being at the usual place you nurse during a certain time) seemed to help a lot with my first son - instead of DH and him coming to get me in the morning, and DS1 wanting to nurse, I would make sure I got out of bed and met him in the kitchen instead.

  Hang in there! I ended up weaning my older son over about 5 months, when I was got pg with DS2. We were down to before nap and bedtime for the last 2-3 months (he was about 23 months when I really started weaning him).
  

  DS1 - Feb 2008

  DS2 - Oct 2010 (my VBAC baby!)

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• Mrs._F

  March 2012

  nosoup4u:

  Well, give it a few weeks (as hard as it may be) for him to get back into his new rhythm of nursing less if he was sick.

  Oh, yes. We had the bug the week of Valentine's. So it's been about a month now, and he's finally at a place where I feel like I can focus on cutting back again.

  We do go out a lot, which helps.

  You ladies who weaned while pregnant are cheating!! hahaha

  Thanks for the replies. I know we'll get there eventually!

  Mrs._F
  sahm ~ toddler breastfeeder ~ cloth diaperer ~ baby wearer
  
  

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• dottymobo member

  March 2012

  The thing that really worked for me in encouraging but not forcing was only nursing in the chair in his room.  I think it helped because saying "no" or even trying to distract or offer something else made DS want to nurse more, but this way I could always say "yes, we can go to your room." Just knowing that it was available seemed to be enough, he more and more didn't actually want to nurse enough to leave what he was doing.

  

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