Breastfeeding while pregnant

[flipflop]

i just wanted to know if anyone had any problems getting pregnant while bf (my periods started 4 months ago)also would love to hear about peoples experiences on bf while pregnant i've had quite negative feedback from my doc and a few friends.

SueW, Bells is fine and hopes to have a home birth. She is due next week. Like me, she is finding being off work has had a drastic effect on her Mumsnet access

Hello
I have just read through this whole thread with interest. I will be 13 weeks pregnant on Saturday and am still breastfeeding ds who is almost 22 months old. The only way he goes to sleep other than in the buggy or carseat is drinking milk so he feeds at night before going to sleep, before going to sleep for his morning nap, in the morning when he wakes up and ALSO, during the night when he wakes up (which he still does, sometimes only once, sometimes a lot more) as well as sometimes in the middle of his morning nap. I would like to start weaning him now that the nausea is slowly wearing off but really have no idea how!!! The idea that sucking and sleeping go together is totally entrenched in his mind (not his fault either poor thing). It is still a cuddly thing sometimes but at other times it is very hard for me as I am knackered in the night etc... Also it would be nice for him to know he doesn't depend on me in that way I think...
Has anybody got any ideas on weaning without it being too traumatic for him?
I definitely don't want to tandem feed and though I will miss the closeness with ds, I also really would like the next few months of pregnancy to be more restful as I have not slept through the night since ds was born (neither has he for that matter ).

Gosh Arabella, I don't know how you do it! You must be exhausted. To drop the night feed I bought a book called 'the no cry sleep solution' that had some interesting ideas, but I found controlled crying worked for me quite well. Whether your ds cosleeps, or is still in your room would probably make a difference to your approach. Something that made me realise I could drop the night feed was one of my books that said, if they are eating 3 meals plus breastfeeding in the day then when they cry in the night and you rush to present the boob to them you are probably just making them an offer too good to refuse, they probably aren't hungry, or even properly awake.

I'll leave it to others with older bubs than me to chip in on the weaning in detail, but I would think you might drop one bf at a time substituting a drink from a cup, of cows milk or water or well diluted juice. I would try to project really positive energy to him about the change, especially as this will be the first of many if he is going to have a little brother or sister soon.

Good Luck!

arabella2 - try not to worry too much as I would say that your ds's feeding will tone down over the next few months on his own anyway. At 2.5 my ds had almost stopped even though we were still co-sleeping, he wouldn't always need to feed last thing at night (we would look at books) and I would just lie beside him till he fell asleep.

I don't think offering other drinks would work as he is unlikely to be associating the breastfeeding with drinking as such. Try to get him to sleep on his own without the breast just with a cuddle or even just put him in his cot (does he have one?) My ds had a cot but it was largely unused and one day I just put him in it and was amazed that he fell asleep. If you can start an association with other places and sleep then you are onto a good thing. Children over 2 start to realise routines and if you say something like "this is just for bedtime" then you could try to cut it down to then and I know some mothers do this last bedtime feed for months and it is the last one to go. See how it goes but don't rush him too much just now - if things haven't changed in 3 months then maybe some more drastic action is needed.

For my part - I loved the co-sleeping (particularly after he stopped the grabbing at me during the night) and I remember clinging onto ds madly the night before I was due to be induced with dd, knowing that was our last night together. However I did have two of them in bed with me for a few weeks till he went happily to his own bed (aged 3) and has stayed there since except for odd occasions if he is ill he may come in with me.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Thanks for your messages and thank you for your reassurance Eulalia. I am just all over the place at the moment as I am worried about not being able to stop, but it is true that the number of times ds wakes up at night is slowly diminishing. However on a bad night he will suck for ages trying to get back to sleep. I will try the cot thing. He slept in it ages ago but we have both been sleeping on a futon on the floor for almost a year now.
I think it's true that the other drinks thing would not work, I have offered him dummies and he plays with them and then goes back to drinking milk from me.
I will try the softly softly approach doing things gradually. Dh is also worried about my not being able to stop breastfeeding and is in some ways jealous of the fact that we co-sleep (not that he is not sleeping with me but that he is not sleeping with ds ) which does not help. However for the past 2 nights we have been sleeping in his room (though not in his bed)... long story.
Maybe some warm milk (almond milk in our case) before going to bed would help to make him drowsy and then he would need less and less milk from me to feel sleepy?
I will also try the telling him about only milk before bedtime and see what happens...

arabella2 - have you tried him sleeping with your dh? Maybe he is a bit too young yet but I was amazed that ds went to sleep with my dh a few times when we were on holiday. He was 2 and a bit then and although he didn't stay in bed the whole night with him it showed the gradual transition between needing me there all the time and sleeping with dh if needed, and then of course on his own eventually.