How Did You Wean Your Toddler?

We were only down to maybe 2 short sessions/day when our daughter was 21 months old. We also co-slept so I had a sippy cup of water to offer if she woke up during the night wanting to nurse. After a few offers of the sippy cup of water, she stopped waking up and asking. Then I just explained that since she was a big girl now, mommy's body wasn't making any more milk. At that age, she totally understood that so it was nice to use reasoning.

I nursed my first through my pregnancy with my second and nursed them both for 2 months or so. My first cut back on his own when my milk changed and when my belly got bigger and his brother began kicking him. He was 3 when he stopped nursing.
One book I really loved was Mothering Your Nursing Toddler http://www.myntoddler.com/myntoddler/Home.html
My second nursed until a few months shy of 5 years. He nursed through a pregnancy that ended in miscarriage at 8 weeks and the first couple months of my pregnancy with my third. His was an easy end. He had already cut back and was able to understand when I said I was feeling far too sick to nurse him. I got morning sickness so bad with that pregnancy! Didn't get it that bad with my other 2.
I didn't think anything of it. It was what we did. It was a slow enough transition that we found other ways to get my oldest to sleep and such. There was no jealousy when we brought home the new B..

I continued to nurse, although it was very painful, Ugh! My toddler knew he had to wait until the new B. got his first, and he did well. I was very protective of my milk with the infant, but found there was plenty to go around. The other responses are excellent. Good luck and blessings to you.

http://www.llli.org/webus.html

See if there is a Toddler La Leche League meeting near you! Tons of advice on nursing toddlers, weaning toddlers AND tandem nursing....

The Leaky B@@B also has a website http://theleakyboob.com/ in addition to their facebook page

I breastfed my first daughter throughout my pregnancy with my second daughter. My milk supply did drop quite a bit during the later part of my pregnancy. I nursed both of my girls for awhile (my older daughter was 3 years 3 months when my second daughter was born). When her little sister was first born my older daughter did want to nurse a little more often, but then she cut back to only before a nap and to get to sleep at night. I did nudge her to start the weaning process when she was about 3 1/2 and it really wasn't hard to do.

Slowly. I distracted her from mid-day nursing and slowly cut down the amount of time she was allowed to nurse til at the end we were just nursing "a little bit" just before bed.

If you want info on tandem nursing, there's plenty out there. A favorite site of mine is kellymom.com.

Tandem nursing is totally possible for some women. The fact that you're still nursing is a huge sign that you're one of them. So don't feel forced into stopping. I second the recommendation for kellymom. Here's a link: http://www.kellymom.com/bf/tandem/index.html

The site mentions a book called Adventures in Tandem Nursing that might help, too.

Best,

S. :+)

Are you on FB? If so check out The Leaky Boob. L. them!

Oh, I nursed while pregnant! And I have several friends who nursed while pregnant and continued to nurse their older toddlers after the B. was born! It can be a great way to ease the transition for the older child into becoming a sibling!

There's a fantastic book called Adventures in Tandem Nursing. It will answer all of your questions!

(And yes, FTR, nursing during pregnancy is perfectly safe except in very rare circumstances.)