Pregnancy and breastfeeding

[YayJennie]

I'm looking for any pregnancy and breastfeeding thread and can't seem to find one. If one already exists, can someone direct me there? If not, I've got a TON of questions for those moms who have been through pregnancy and breastfeeding.

Talk to me about milk drying up. If that happens, is the milk gone until the new baby comes, or can your supply dip, but rebuild itself? If your nursling is still interested, can you dry nurse through pregnancy so you can tandem once the new baby is born, or is that a bad idea?

If your milk does dry up, how do you know if you need to supplement? My son is turning a year at the end of the month, and "they" say you only need breast milk or formula until one year. But he still nurses 3 times a day and 2-3 times at night. I know that's not THAT much, but it seems like he's getting a significant portion of his calories from my milk. I'm not keen on the idea of supplementing with formula or giving cow's milk. What are some other options? Goat's milk maybe? What have others done for 1+ year old babes to supplement low supply in your breast milk, or is it really just not a concern and I should encourage more solids?

What did you wear when pregnant and breast feeding? I've lived in nursing tanks the past year, but the nursing tanks will probably fit me for another few months (I get real big, real quick). Has anyone found any decent maternity clothes that are also nursing friendly? Has anyone made nursing clothes? How did you manage the clothing aspect of nursing and pregnant?

Thanks in advance!

[lellian]

Hi YayJennie,

If you find more information will you PM me? I'm also very curious about breastfeeding and pregnancy. On my end, DD is only 2 months and I don't want to cheat her out of nursing/breast milk if we get pregnant before she is 8 months old. I have about 5 minutes a day to log into MDC so a PM would be idea to read if anyone has information or can point me in the right direction.

TIA,

lellian

[GoGoGirl]

Wow mama, we were in the same DDC with our firsts! Congratulations!

I just saw that Glamourmom makes maternity nursing tanks. I haven't tried any Glamourmom tanks so I can't vouch for them, but it's worth a look.

[MoonStarFalling]

IME (I've nursed through two pregnancies) supply can go up and down until the colostrum comes in. Mine came in around the beginning of the third trimester. I was able to keep my supply up last time with tons of water (about 1.2 gallons per day), sleep, nutrition and pregnancy tea (red raspberry leaf, nettles, alfalfa or take More Milk Two supplement).

Since your son is turning 1 I would probably give him an occasional cup of hemp milk and or homemade formula if you feel it's necessary. Like if he's nursing and then saying he's still starving. My milk dried up the first time and DS got noticeably thinner because of that. I probably should have given him a high fat supplement.

Wearing a cross over style v neck shirt or just a large t shirt and a belly band works great for nursing while pg. I took an old long stretchy cotton tank top and cut the boob area out to wear under t shirts.

[doubledutch]

the book "adventures in tandem nursing" has a lot of info about nursing while pregnant.
http://www.kellymom.com/nursingtwo/index.html
if you click on the "FAQ" most of it is about nursing during pregnancy.

supply varies depending on the woman - some completely lose their milk, some have decreased supply but it never really disappears. in either case, at some point in the pregnancy, it will switch to colustrum. you can continue to nurse under any of those circumstances, as long as your lo wants to.

my boys are 18 months apart and i had decent milk until around ds1's first birthday. (that's when i quit pumping at work, and at that point i'd only get 1-2 ounces each time i pumped.) i supplemented with full fat yogurt, and by giving him rice milk bottles with a tablespoon of flax oil mixed in, until he started liking cow's milk around 15 months. i also tried to make sure his diet had plenty of other good fats - olives / olive oil, avocados, nut butters (although i know many people don't do nuts at this age), hummus, etc.

for nursing maternity wear, my best friend was my bella band. it allowed me to pull my (maternity) shirt up to nurse, yet keep my belly covered. prior to that, i had worn a tank under my normal clothes, so this pretty much had the same effect except that i had to also wear a bra. those glamourmom tanks look awesome too . . .