I am currently 27 weeks pregnant and still nursing my 2 1/2 year old son.
My son is also very attached to breastfeeding, and continues to nurse
about three times a day, despite the fact that there is little or no milk
left (I cannot hand express a drop and he has no audible swallows while
nursing). Although I haven't completely weaned him, I have dramatically
cut back on his nursing sessions, both in number and in duration. I have
also completely night-weaned him.
When I first became pregnant, he was still nursing on demand (at least five
times a day and two to three times at night), and now we're down to 3x a
day (morning, nap-time, and bedtime). What worked for us was to gradually
shorten his existing nursing sessions. I started by saying, "we'll read
these stories, and then we'll be all done." Now, he only nurses while we
read certain stories, and he knows that when we say "The End," we're all
done nursing.
For night weaning, I explained to him that Mama was too tired to make milk
at night, which he seemed to accept very willingly. When he awoke at night
asking for milk, I reminded him that I couldn't make milk at night and he
settled for a snuggle instead. Eventually, he began asking for snuggles
instead of milk at night (we still bed-share).
Throughout this process, I offered him milk with a straw (first cow milk,
and then later we switched to almond milk due to a sensitivity). We used
the kind of cups that have a silicone straw with a fairly strong valve.
This allows him to satisfy some of his sucking needs without my breast.
I hope this helps!
-Máire
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