Breastfeeding during Pregnancy? Let's check in!

[hurricanerek]

I know I'm not the only one. How's it going, ladies? Does your LO still like his/her milkies all the time or are you weaning? How has pregnancy been affecting your supply/breastfeeding experience?

[annapunkalunka]

I'm happy to see this thread!! My DD is 20 months old. When I got pregnant she was nursing twice a day (morning and night). We've since dropped the morning session. So we're still nursing at bedtime. I've been slowly shortening that session in hopes that she'll naturally wean herself. She's reallllllllly obsessed, so idk how that'll go. Idk how my supply is. I'm assuming it's dropped, but she hasn't changed anything.
My main priority is getting her weaned with enough time for her to get over her love affair with my boobs before they're out all the time for baby 2.

[fem]

I'm right there with you annapunkalunka. DD is 28 months and had always been obsessed with nursing. We're down to about 30 seconds on each side before bed and naps. At least she is falling asleep on her own now though.

I'm not sure if she'll ever stop on her own, I might have to push the issue soon. I tell her baby will need the mama milk and she says 'I share with baby. That one for me, that one for baby.' Lol.

[hurricanerek]

annapunkalunka our kids must be close in age. DD will be 20 months on Friday.

She still nurses quite a bit. Always before nap and before bed plus she asks 1-2 more times throughout the day. At first I was all about weaning but she really resisted and I came to realize that she really isn't ready yet. My overall hope is that she will self-wean and if that means I have to tandem nurse, I'm willing to do that. I'm just feeling intimidated about two kids at once.

[lpj]

DD is 15.5 months. She's been gradually dropping feeds for a while - we cut down to morning and before bed only shortly after I fell pregnant and we recently dropped the bedtime feed when she hit 15months. I always thought my personal end point would be around 15-18 months and I don't want to tandem feed but it's still bittersweet! DD doesn't really seem to care that much - she still is super keen on feeding when we're actually doing it but she never 'asks' at other times and had no trouble dropping the night feed. Our journey is nearly over :/

[hurricanerek]

lpj and flyakite I'm always surprised how emotional the topic of weaning is. It's such a huge sense of connection to our children. I think breastfeeding during this pregnancy has helped me process through the guilt of DD not being my only baby anymore.

[danizee]

I started off nursing but stopped about 6 weeks ago. He started to loose interest and so I took advantage by not offering and keeping him busy and distracted. The last feeding to go was bedtime, I dropped down to every other night and he didn't seem to notice. He has a favorite stuffed animal in his crib and he is always so excited to see his Mickey that I don't think he cared that I would skip nursing. I never thought it would happen, this guy loved to nurse.

[caz1221]

DD weaned (with some gentle encouragement from me) in December (she was 27 months old), just about 3-4 weeks before I got PG. She asked about nursing for a few nights and then periodically over the next few weeks, and I told her that now that she was a big girl, "snack" (her name for nursing) had to go to the little babies who need it very much. She was content with that explanation. To the extent it's helpful for anyone thinking of weaning before #2 arrives, I was worried about losing that very special connection with her, but now I see I had nothing to worry about. Instead of nursing before bed, we have snuggle time in the glider, and she tells me about her day. GL to everyone!

[theotherjacobsons]

DD is 18 months and I am letting her self wean. We're down to 1-2 sessions a day. Always the night session. She went through something last week where she was waking for 2 hours every night and nursing like she was a 9 month old. Worse actually because it was an hour on each side. Not gonna lie, at the end of that week my nips felt like she was rubbing sandpaper on them when she nursed. Thankfully, that's done. She woke up last night and asked for milk, but I didn't give it to her. She fell asleep on her own.

I picked up that Tandem nursing book from LLL. I've already learned a bit about how things change, so I know a bit about what to expect. I am also interested in learning more about what to say to people who want to share their opinions.

I was chatting with my co-worker about how I was worried about how night time routine would be with the new baby and DD still nursing. I told her I planned to let her self wean, like I have been saying since the beginning and she said, "why don't you just wean her". Seriously lady? I just said I was going to let her self wean. That's why you dumb bitch. So you see, I need to learn how to respond to people...

[caz1221]

theotherjacobsons, if you haven't already, practice your resting bitch face (or active bitch face if needed). I'm sure tons of my friends/family/acquaintances judged my choice to nurse DD until she was 27 months old, but not a single one said a negative word to me about it. I chalk it up to my ability to give off a strong sense of giving no f**ks about other people's opinions of my choices. GL with tandem nursing!

[hurricanerek]

theotherjacobsons, I'm also interested to see how others react to tandem nursing. Most people tend to speak out of ignorance and so I'm trying to prepare myself for presenting facts to those who have "opinions."

[bennikki]

I just follow my kids' lead. My first stopped nursing out of no where the day he turned 18 months, and he was nursing 2-3 times a day still. He was 21 months when his brother was born, and I thought he might ask to nurse, but he never even seemed remotely interested.

My second born is 17 months now, and he kind of takes it or leaves it. If he gets up early in the morning (5/6 am), I'll nurse him in the hopes he'll go back to sleep for another hour or so, and it sometimes works. If he sleeps in, he wants to play the moment he's out of his crib, so nursing does not happen. He picks who he wants to put him down at night, so if it's me he nurses, and if it's my husband, he doesn't, and it doesn't effect how easily he goes down or how well he sleeps (he's typically down from 7:30 pm to 7 am).

I remember thinking the first time around when my son stopped nursing, there was no way he was getting much milk anyway. I was over 6 months pregnant at the time, but I was super engorged for 3 days after he stopped.

I should probably read up on tandem nursing just in case. My fear with tandem nursing is oversupply. I've been very susceptible to it in the past, and I would worry about what potentially 2 nursing children would do to my supply. Despite what some may think, oversupply really sucks and comes with its own set of issues: plugged ducts, mastitis, fore and hind milk imbalance, colic, and gas. The way to get over it is block feeding, and that is incredibly painful and takes about a week to get the correct balance of supply and demand.

[olive]

DS weaned himself this January. He was around 18months. It depends on the day but most days I wake up sore and engorged.

[lpj]

bennikki I hear you on the challenges of oversupply, I was exactly the same. Add in ridiculous boob leakage and absolutely enormous vomits from DD in public places after feeding due to shear volume of consumption. It's one of my main concerns about tandem feeding, together with having seen how much the composition of my milk changed over the months to meet DDs needs and being uncertain how that can adapt adequately to fulfil the needs of a tiny baby (super low volume; super high calorie) and a toddler (mostly hydration at this point for us I think). But I know it definitely works for many many families! My other concern is to avoid anything toward the later stages of pregnancy that might encourage labour due to DD being early. On the other hand I absolutely love feeding DD for the quiet snuggles, the easy way to calm her if she's upset, the immune boost and especially how fantastic it is on airplanes! So it will pretty sad to stop entirely.

[hurricanerek]

It feels like I should share this here: my boobs are finally getting bigger! Dh pointed it out to me. I was disappointed when everyone else was experiencing that as their first pregnancy symptom and I wasn't. Now I'm finally catching up!

[bennikki]

lpj, I remember with my first thinking he was never going to quit on his own because he seemed to love and need nursing, but he simply turned his head one day and never nursed again. I kept offering for several days after, but he had no interest, and I was so sad. I mean, I was 6 months pregnant, it was a little crowded at the bar, but it was still something I missed greatly.