pregnant and nursing support thread - Page 2

[Mrstattedup]

Hello to all the Pregnant and Nursing Mommies!
I am 18 wks pregnant and nursing my 20 month old ds..severe breast tenderness started around the 6th week into my pregnancy and has not gotten any better..it's actually get worse..as my pregnancy progresses..and the pain is unimaginable and almost unbearable! I say almost because I plan on tandem nursing and know that my child is yet not ready to wean..so the pain even as bad as it is..I'm still nursing..
but alot of the times it is excruciating..can it get any more painful than that?
What's really driving me nuts is that he's nursing alot more often and nursing at least every 2 hours at night..which means its ongoing pain and constantly..it's really when he first latches on and when my milk comes down..after a few minutes it eases a bit.
I usually just meditate and take deep breathes right before I'm about to latch him on..I guess that's all I can do..
I am sure this tenderness will last my whole pregnancy! and it does kinda scares me a bit..because I don;t know if I'll be able to make it.. :

just a few days ago I thought I'd made up my mind and said I'd just have to wean!..but hearing so many stories and knowing I'm not alone..makes me sigh and feel a great relief!!!!!!!!! and now know that everything will be fine!
When I tell my son..he will get his "Boo" his face lights up with soo much Joy..and everytime I see his precious smile and hear his excitement just makes me that much stronger to keep nursing him and continue to want to Tandem Nurse!

[peaceful mama]

Hi There! Great Thread, thanks for starting it Brandi! I'm about 10 weeks along and have a 18 month old little boy. He still nurses A LOT! We probably nurse 10+ times a day (sometimes these are short quick sessions) and at least 5 times each night. I also have a lot of nipple soreness. I don't have any thirst which is odd, and water doesn't sound good with nauseau so I don't think I'm staying very well hydrated. I drank more water before I was pregnant. I need to work on this. My milk supply has dimished a lot and I'm sure this is why.

I need to night wean also but I don't really know how or where to start. I'm sure there are some great threads on night weaning though. Any suggestions?

So nice to see that there is a lot of Mama's out there still nursing and planning on nursing throughout the pregnancy. People are starting to give me a really hard time about it and think that I have to wean. Interesting....:

[Mamma2Addison]

Peaceful Mama ~ Nightweaning was a lark for us. Ds and I came down with the flu, and he was so congested and tired that he stopped nursing at night. The first night I thought it was a fluke, but he never started back up.

There is a method for nightweaning specifically geared toward AP, although I haven't tried it myself, that a lot of people seem to have success with. The website is Dr. Jay Gordon.

[kayjayjay]

Hi everyone! I'm so happy to find this thread! I'm 10 weeks pg and still nursing my 33 mo DD. I don't know what will happen over the next 7 months, but DD shows no signs of weaning and I really feel like she needs to lead. I'm hoping I can make it all the way through the pregnancy because I know tandem nursing will help her make the transition to being a big sister! No one in my life right now (except DH ) understands why an almost 3yo still needs to nurse, but she has always been a high needs baby and I'm not going to cut her off before she's ready.

Right now I'm dealing with the pain, and I was coming here to ask if anyone knows if it will get any better! I'm so glad to hear that it probably will. It only hurts right when she latches on, so it's bearable right now...but with the nausea and the exhaustion it's just one more extremely uncomfortable thing in my life right now.

I'm losing weight and hardly eating, but I really feel like the ms is going to start letting up soon. Wishful thinking maybe?

I'm going to buy the adventures in tandem nursing...sounds like just what I need right now.

Thanks everyone.

[Mama2ABCD]

Hi! I'm currently nursing a 2 yo and 3 1/2 yo. this is the second preg i'm nursing through and i'm 24 weeks. this preg is so diff from the last two. my second preg i nursed my ds the entire length without a problem. abundant milk, no sore nipples, and he was young enough that anytime he napped i could catch up on naps with him. this time around it's harder to nurse. i had no problems nursing two until i got preg. now i have sore nipples a lot (not everyday) and since this time i've nightweaned i noticed my supply has dwindled to almost nothing. i still plan to keep at it, my boys don't want to stop.

i remember the the first time i nursed thru a preg i read that water intake is very important. i'm a huge water drinker, but i made sure i increased my supply. this time around i still drink lots of water, but the sore latchings seems to coincide dehydration. like early morning feedings compared to afternoon feedings. i'm sure there is more to consider, (having a low supply vs abundant supply which is also linked to hydration) but making sure you are very hydrated can take away some of the soreness.

hang in there!

[Threefold]

I'm here too! I'm very newly pg (5 weeks tomorrow) and so far ds, who is nearly 3 has really upped his nursing time! I'm a tad more sensitive, but nothing like the tenderness I experienced whie pg with him. I'm tryig to really focus on eating well and staying hydatred and knock on wood, so far my m/s has only been fleeting and is much imporved if I eat anything. So different from my pg with ds where I had m/s from the get go and sore nipples/breasts before I even had a + hpt. I am worried about how he wil react to sharing HIS "bobos" with the baby. I imagine it won't be pretty. Any ideas on how to help prepare him for this?

[Solange]

Hi
Include me in here too..
cool to see so many nursing past 1 and preggo.......and two of you (from what I remember reading) are also nursing a 3 y/o like me cool!
I am just a little paranoid of nursing him b/c of my miscarriage( @4weeks-but never tested positive) in Sept....so I am educating myself all I can....the book you all have mentioned is a must have.......

Glad you ladies are here and I am early too like 4 weeks and 4 days.....
hope we all can benefit from each other.......
and kirstie...I to you...you go mamma!

[mattjule]

I am almost 10 wks and nursing my 20 mo old ds. I, too, am experiencing a lot of nipple pain. I am less self-sacrificing than most of you, though, because I don't let him nurse whenever he wants. He has to wait at least a 1/2 hour between feedings for my nipples to recover. I make sure to try feeding him solids every time he wants to nurse (if he had his way, he'd never eat regular food!), so I know he isn't starving. I am trying to teach him that he can have cuddle, mommy time without nursing. It only gets hard at night when he is getting sleepy and wants to nurse all the time. We don't have a set bedtime so that probably doesn't help.

As far as nights go, he generally only wakes about 3 times to nurse. Most of the time I act like I am asleep on my opposite side and he'll settle himself and go back to sleep. So we are nursing to fall asleep and nursing again in the morning so I can get more sleep (it usually buys me at least an hour).

I guess I am the only one here who hopes their dc weans when my milk supply decreases. Kind of makes me feel like a bad mom seeing how determined you all are to tandem. My ds still has trouble seeing my body as mine and not his and I am so tired of that. I think my delay in response at night is working well for night-weaning. Plus it is pretty effortless. If he gets worked up, I nurse him, but most of the time he just goes back to sleep. He has started laying on my pillow, though, so gradually I will be sleeping low down on the bed or closer and closer to dh. We put a pillow on ds's bed last night (crib mattress next to ours on the floor) and it worked pretty well. he lays with his whole body on it.

[Mama2ABCD]

Julie, you are NOT a bad mom because you are not planning to tandem. don't think that. just trust what you can do and believe in it.

Dalai_mama, i would not worry about your oldest nurser not wanting to share. he can't nurse on two breasts at once! he'll look out after his new sibling just watch! if you feel you must prepare him, just talk to him about how baby's nurse and that his new sibling is going to have to nurse too.

[ebethmom]

Brandi - thanks for starting this thread! I came here tonight looking specifically for this topic.

I'm seven weeks pregnant, and my son is 27 months. Just this week, nursing has felt like opening my shirt for a pack of pirrhanas! OUCH! Night time seems to be worse.

Last night we were at my Mom's, and ds had a hard time sleeping. I don't know how many times I felt a tap on my back, and his little sleepy voice saying, "Mommy, wake up! I need to nuhse."

I DO so hope that this pain eases up soon. I don't want to wean him, but I do find myself putting him off. That was easier at my Mom's, since he forgets that I exist there.

I hear him coming up the stairs now, dragging his lawn mower behind.

[ChildoftheMoon]

Goodmorning ladies! How is everyone doing? DD has been pretty good the last few nights, but the nipple pain is still there. Yesterday one side was worse than the other so I only let her nurse on one side and then I had one huge boob and one little. I finally gave in and let her nurse on the super sore side and today it feels fine. My boobs are feeling so heavy now (and I have small ones!). Dd was doing a lot of the constant off-on yesterday, I finally just told her no more, mama-milk needs a break, I was surprised she took it so well. Thinking of you all, hope you are all doing well
Brandi

[ChildoftheMoon]

Just checking in to see how you all are doing. I just got my Adventures in Tandem nursing book last night. I can't wait to start reading it today. Hope everyone is feeling well, and that the pain is lessening. I seem to go back and forth with the pain and my patience, wondering where the blissful nursing moments have gone. That really makes me sad.

Brandi

[Mama2ABCD]

Brandi, whenever your nursing your child (preg or not), it's not always bliss! keep that in mind to help through the pain. All good things have bad moments!! Nothing is perfect.

[ChildoftheMoon]

Thank you kirstie! I have just been feeling bad because it seems like I am doing more pushing away and less cuddling. Thank you for reminding me of that and putting things back into perspective!
Brandi

[kayjayjay]

Well, my pain seems to have settled on the right side, which is good I guess since the left side is the favored one. Sophie and I are recovering from some kind of flu that kept me in bed all weekend with Sophie nursing constantly. I let myself get very dehydrated which of course made everything worse. Today I'm feeling much better, still tired but I'm up and about and actually eating again.

I'm surprised at myself, but I haven't actually felt any impatience with the constant nursing. I was afraid the pg hormones would make me more cranky with her, but so far so good. I'm very concerned that this new baby not upset her world completely.

[Artisan]

Me too -- my DS is 18 months, and I'm 6 weeks pg with baby #2. Aside from soreness, all seems to be going well, but I am concerned about being able to eat well enough to sustain a new baby, my first baby, and me while working outside the home.

[ChildoftheMoon]

I think with me, the impatience with her nursing 15x a day came before I got pregnant. I think my milk was lessening before then and she has been trying to get more and more out of me to no avial. She likes to use me as a pacifier. I don't know why I am feeling this way toward her, but I am feeling way touched out. I love nursing and think it is very important to her emotionally. I will work it out. I think a lot of it has been with our recent upheaval and loss (dh's mom) in October. Finding time to grieve has been tough. Time to sit back and count my blessings and take a deep breath. Thank you ladies for joining me on this thread.
Brandi

[ilovebeingamom]

Hi everyone,

I am newly pg, 4 weeks, and nursing my 34 month old. I want a natural led weaning, and hoping that he will stop during the pregnancy. I am not crazy about the idea of tandem nursing, but i never planned on nursing a three year old either. Right now I am being crawled over while he is chanting "I want to nurse, nurse, nurse." Lol, I haven't had much nipple pain yet so that is good. No more than what I had during ovulation and such. bye!

[ebethmom]

Today, ds patted his chest and said "still sore!" So I told him, yes, the nursies are still sore - you have to be gentle. He can accept that they're sore, just as long as he still gets his nursie.

We were busy yesterday, so he only nursed 5 or 6 times. But today I'm tired and we're home. So he has already nursed four times. The right side is definitely more tender.

Thankfully, ds has timed his poopy diapers while dh has been home. I haven't had to change a poopy diaper since last Wednesday. This bionic sense of smell makes diaper changes SO risky! I really would hate to puke on his bare bottom!

[sugarmoon]

Hi all, just chiming in here! I'm about 15 or 16 wks pg and nuring my 15 mo. old ds. I had some soreness 1st trimester, the kind that was bad w/ latch on, but then subsided. Luckily, I had it on one side only. That seems to have gotten better, but I am getting concerned about my supply. For many nursings, I hardly hear swallowing at all, and I don't feel let down anymore (but, I never felt a strong let down and i honestly can't remember if I stopped feeling it prior to pg or after). Of course, I do think part of it is that ds wants to nurse, oh every 20 min. or so when we are home, so its not as if there's a whole lot of time for the supply to fill up: But, I am needing to be more aware of my fluid and protien intake, too.