Stopping breastfeeding, pregnant again- advice needed please

[mumsiemoo2]

Hi,
desperately trying to stop breastfeeding my 14 month old. She doesn’t really feed much during the day now, but nurses to sleep each night and then wakes every 2 hours throughout the night still, I can’t get her back to sleep Without nursing. Husband can occasionally get her back off by rocking.

just to add she has a lot of allergies one being CMP, the dietitian advised soya growing up milk which she will have in cereal but isn’t keen on it as a drink. Doesn’t take bottles well either.

im nearly 15 weeks pregnant, super sick and exhausted. Really worried that I’m not going to get her off the boob and sleeping better before baby arrives in January.

dd1 naturally stopped breastfeeding at 13 months and enjoyed cows milk, so weaning off of breastfeeding is new to me!

any advice greatly received. I’m so desperate to stop I’m even considering bottle feeding the new baby so husband can help more.

I am in the same boat - trying to wean at 13 months with my fifth child. It is difficult, and I have found this very hard this time as my dd also wakes very often at night for a feed, I can’t imagine being pregnant with this level of lack of sleep - you must be exhausted!

My previous children were all weaned around 1 year, and I have found switching to having a cup of water instead of milk at night worked a treat, they stopped waking as much and self soothed easier. This time, I am going to try a softer approach and found this method is good - reducing the amount of time feeding every three days, and then stopping the feeding (see below).

https://www.drjaygordon.com/blog-detail/sleep-changing-patterns-in-the-family-bed

Good luck OP (to both of us)!

At 18 months we night weaned my eldest by having DH do all night wakes and offering water (not that he would touch milk). It took a couple of weeks but then he started to sleep through.

He did however continue to nurse for years and I tandem fed when our second arrived. I really struggled emotionally and mentally with nursing during pregnancy but I think it helped once the baby arrived.

Could you try some alternative milk drinks if she doesn’t care for the one you’ve been advised to use? She can still use that one on cereal.

Hi thank you both! A friend recommended introducing a dummy also but she just isn’t interested at this age. I think I need to get DH on board with the waking at night time.

she’s biting lots at the moment, due to teething and I swear I am having a bit of breastfeeding aversion! I can’t imagine tandem feeding, must be so tiring !

Tandem feeding, for me, was easier than pregnancy nursing. I do have horrific pregnancies though.

If she bite take her off straight away, she’ll learn pretty quickly not to clamp down

Keep trying with the soya milk, you could also try oat milk as that's the option for those with CMP and soya allergies.
My daughter was on prescription formula at this age but was about 18 months before she accepted something wasn't formula and previously breastmilk as a drink and at 20 months we were able to start weaning her off the formula and on to oat milk. She has a soya allergy so can't have soya milk. There is the growing up oat milk and oatly barista which are both suitable substitutes. We use oatly barista due to a pea protein allergy and the growing up milk has (or at least had) pea protein in. I thought we would never get her off the formula but with time we got there. We just offered small amounts semi regularly and one day she accepted it.
Even though she was formula fed at this point she only accepted me overnight so it's not a given that not breastfeeding will give you overnight support as they can still have a preference for mum! She had oat milk overnight until 3 and again only me. She's 5 now and has nothing overnight and still only settles overnight for me. At least now it's a quick cuddle and I sit on a chair in her room for 20 minutes whilst she goes back to sleep and only once a week on average. I'm due my second in September a few months ago she was much more reliant on me for going back to sleep overnight so I'm hoping she doesn't go backwards!