ok, I am sure this is probably tmi, but such is life.I am currently nursing my little baby, 10 weeks, and my big baby, 2 and a bit. Does anyone else have any experience with this? Most days I am totally fine with it, but there are some when I feel as though toddler led weaning is not in our cards...if I decide to be the mean mommy (versus lazy as I am rather prone to) does anyone have any tips on weaning? Right now I am trying to limit her times for the boob, but sometimes when I am nursing the baby, the other one wants up too...and telling her no doesnt always work...well it would work better if I would be a little meaner I guess, but I dont really want to.
Short kinda funny story...they have already had their first "booby fight." I was holding the baby and the monster climbs up and helps herself (gotta luv that, but thats another story)...baby wasnt nursing at the time, just hanging out...(she was about 5 weeks old at that time)...I guess she decided she wanted some too, if her big sis was having some, so instead of crying or whatever to get my attention, she just starts scooching herself down towards the boob...and not the free one either, the one her sister was on...pretty self sufficient.... if only she would change her own diaper...

I don't have any experience with tandem nursing or weaning, but I hang out on the breastfeeding.com webboards and I've gleaned a little info about it.

I think it's really normal that if your older child was heading towards weaning or at least dramatically reduced nursings, with the introduciton of the new baby, she's going to revert a little and want to be babied at the breast more. It's a security thing: she wants to know that she's still important to mommy in this aspect. She probably misses being the only one, having exclusive access to you and your "jugs of love" :)

I think that after 2 it is entirely reasonable, especially with a newborn in the picture, to reduce the older ones number of nursings. Perhaps you can aim, for now, to get down to 2 or three nursings a day (such as a morning nurse, a nap nurse and a bedtime nurse, or whatever pattern fits your family lifestyle). You didn't say how often your toddler wants at the tap, so maybe you are already close to that, tho I think she's probably wanting the boob a lot more often if you're feeling it's becoming a problem.

I highly recommend checking out the breastfeeding.com webboards. There are separate boards for weaning and tandem nursing. The women there are amazingly helpful. http://www.breastfeeding.com/cgi-bin/Ultimate.cgi

Thanks for the reply...will definitely check out that site....while I was pregnant she would only nurse 2-3 times/day...I think its about the same now, but maybe I am just feeling a little stressed over feeding two of them, I dont know. But, being the true schizo that I am, I'm not sure if I am even ready to let it go yet....my kid is hell on wheels and this is the only way she'll sit still long enough to cuddle....the agony!!!!

I tandem nursed my boys, who are 20 months apart, and will be happy to write more about it when I don't have wet nailpolish and a perforance to go to within the hour!

More later....

L

i have no experience with it myself, but at my la leche league meeting yesterday, someone was singing the praises of the new book, Adventures in Tandem Nursing.
>http://www.lalecheleague.org/books/tandem.html