Feeling GUILTY about not breastfeeding DD1 anymore

[Dozeyland]

I breast-fed DD until she was 13.5ish months old. She's now 15months. I am 24weeks pregnant with DC2. She basically self-weaned along with me offering cow's milk. I lost weight with breastfeeding, and along with being pregnant, i'm very slim anyway and felt like i was being drained. DD started didnt sleep well at night when I BF her at the end. and I also didnt think I would be able to BF both as i literally waste away! I LOVE breastfeeding with a passion. I did the dont refuse, and i did offer, but eventually she preferred the cows milk. broke my heart making the change. :(

And I'm looking forward to BF this little one, but feeling a bit upset as it will no longer be DD. I guess I need to look at it as the next chapter with breastfeeding :)

Reading all the great research into breastfeeding, I was just wondering if i've hindered DD by allowing her to switch to cows milk at 13.5months?

Also as soon as she was in her own room at this same time, and on cows milk. she's slept 7-7.

Aw, don't feel guilty, you sound like you've done great and your DD has had a smooth and happy transition away from bf.
Yes bm is still good for children after they turn 1 but milk is becoming an increasingly small part of their diet so I would think the kind of food they're having matters more than the kind of milk

Enjoy bfing your lovely newborn in a few months times :)

Thank you. I am very proud of our achievements together, as it took 10 long weeks to be pain-free.

Thanks :)

Dozey - don't feel guilty! You have accomplished the perfect end to a wonderful breastfeeding relationship with your DD. Why? Because she was happy and secure enough for it to come to a close and move onto cow's milk.

I also love BF and when I weaned my son at 16mo to have some medical tests and hopefully TTC, I felt so selfish. I would have been happy to carry on. But I weaned him at a time when he was unfazed by stopping (after previously being obsessed by it!). So I stopped at a time that left me able to do what I needed to do and left him happy and secure with his mum.

I know you'll soon be breastfeeding a new baby, which is odd when it's been such a part of yours and your DD's relationship, but you get to have a relationship with DD that will move onto another level.

My 17mo old now hugs and kisses in a different way from just a month ago. He talks more and communicates his affection in new ways. You will have the same thing.

So don't feel too sad or guilty. You sound like a lovely mum.

Thank you :)

I look forward to breastfeeding our new arrival, as I find it so special. Its something that I never realised I would love, and also it benefits in the most amazing ways - all round. and for me to be able to say i'm a part of that is great.

DD is very loving also, and she has obviously benefitting from having my milk. I hope that one day, she will experience those magical feelings if she breastfeeds her children.

I felt like i was letting her down at firt, by offering her cow's milk. but she was happy, which made me happy. I do think "What if we carried on" but then you can't dwell and live on what ifs can you. She's happy, thats all that matters.

I do wonder how she will react when she see's new baby feeding, if she wants to start again, would this be possible? She only has a morning, lunch and bed time milk time anyway.

I think there have been another few threads on here about older kids gaining an interest in BF again once they see the new baby doing it.

I don't have any experience with that but some people have tried it and they are now breastfeeding two children at the same time. Others found their older children weren't terribly interested when they gave it a go. And others said their kids had forgotten how to latch on and could no longer suckle, so they also lost interest.

So I guess anything could happen!

Personally I would probably try and convince DS that BF was for babies. He was attached to me pretty much 100% of the time when he was small, so I can't imagine when a toddler would get the time to be involved! But who knows? Maybe if my DS got very upset and jealous about it, I'd become a tandem feeder! After all, I never expected to love breastfeeding so much and also found it very hard at first. So perhaps I might be a future tandem feeder....

....sounds like a lot of hard work though!

i bf my first till 13months then had dc2 a couple of months later, so didn't have long to wait to start up again. I was a bit miffed at the enthusiasm he had for choosing a beaker for his bedtime milk but it was part of his independence too which was lovely to see develop after we'd been through some tough clingy times!

He barely seemed to notice his baby brother, let alone the fact that i was feeding him. i'm sure he can't have forgotten that quickly but he was more interested in the baby's dummy!

I wasnt 100% on tandem feeding, as I just feel that I would have had no energy, and would have wasted away lol.

If it occurs, then by all means. but she seems content with her amounts of cow's milk, and she has a great appetite.

I just want to know that baby #2 is getting the best of my next lot of milk, like DD did. :)