Wednesday, April 25, 2012

To (partially) wean or not to wean?

K is still nursing probably 10 or more times in a day, even though she eats solid food great generally and is pretty much night weaned. I'm not planning to completely wean anytime soon, but I still haven't had a period and we want to start trying for baby #2 and have wanted to for a while.  I'm not sure how to gently reduce her nursing.  She is pretty persistent and know where the milk comes from.

 She nurses right before bed between 8:30-9 pm, and then usually wakes briefly between 6-7 am to nurse and generally goes back to sleep for another hour or so.  She nurses again when she wakes for the day between 7-8 am.  Once she up, I make our breakfast and she generally eats some fruit, an egg yolk and some yogurt.  Then about 9 we go to take our shower and she nurses again.  She then nurses before nap about 11, but sometimes she will even nurse before that.  She nurses again after her nap (between 12-12:30 pm).  Then we have lunch (meat, veggies, maybe rice, etc.).  She usually nurses again after lunch.  I do try to offer water when I remember, but a lot of the time she just wants to nurse.  She nurses again before her second nap usually between 3:30-4 pm.  She nurses again when she wakes up between 4:15-5 pm.  We usually eat dinner around 6-6:30 pm and she usually has a slice of cheese as a snack before that.  She usually nurses once or twice between finishing dinner and getting ready for bed.  She has a cup of kefir (cultured milk, kind

She seems to tend to nurse more when she's teething (she's getting 3 top teeth right now) or when she's bored.  She also wants to nurse when she is sitting on the potty.  I've started to take her on more walks to keep her from getting bored.  I definitely want to continue nursing before bedtime and naps and first thing in the morning.  Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

4 comments:

  1. WEAN! :)

    But that is just person preference. I will wean all babies around or before 1...... :)

    If we are open to another baby before then and kid is on enough solids to sustain, I will wean. No questions asked. :)

    Wean! You can do it! :) LOL Get your period back, Momma!

    Dodging fireballs!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Does she take a sippy cup of milk? That should do the trick. Luke loves his sippy cup and sometimes he prefers that to nursing and sometimes he'd rather nurse. But he drastically cut down in frequency once he started taking it around a year. They're just thirsty and/or bored and want to sip on something. It'll either be you or something else :) Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's really hard to wean between 13 and 16 months. Just to warn you. So either wean now, or you'll be in it for the long haul. Also, FYI, if you've ever had a miscarriage before (which I don't think you have) it is recommended to wean before you get pregnant or wait until after the second baby is born (i.e tandem nurse). There is a higher risk of miscarriage if you wean during pregnancy when you've had a previous miscarriage. Also, any amount of nursing while TTC can complicate TTC. Often times cycles can be infertile with partial breastfeeding.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That is interesting Dr. G. I have heard that about the 13-16month. That is one battle I'm just not willing to even cross. LOL So interesting!

    ReplyDelete