Nursing during Pregnancy/Tandeming Questions

[konayossie]

I am beginning the adventure of nursing my almost-2-year old while pregnant and was hoping some experienced mamas could give me some advice.

1. At what point and how sore did your nipples get? I am 10 weeks now, and my nipples are more sensitive--feels pretty much like I did when I was ovulating or about to get AF. Makes latching on unpleasant (and the constant switching therefore even more annoying), but it's not unbearable. Is that what it's going to feel like all the way or will it get worse? It's nothing like the pain I had the first 5 months when I just wanted to cry through most of our nursing sessions (I think it was Reynaud's).

2. Did you/do you recommend night weaning during pregnancy? We cosleep, and DS has been a terrible sleeper from day 1 (we came to cosleeping out of desperation--he wouldn't sleep at all on his own). He still wakes up very frequently. A 4-hr stretch is a huge occurrence (maybe one or twice a month); 2 hours is probably average for him. I WOH, and am exhausted after almost 2 years of this. However, I had sort of come to terms with just letting nature take its course, but now I'm thinking that I need to get him in a better sleep pattern for sanity's sake and although I plan to tandem, I do NOT want to deal with nursing a toddler and a newborn at night. I might should add here that my son had IUGR and has hung around the 1% for height-weight since the beginning. Getting him to eat anything is a struggle (tiny appetite and picky about textures), so I also have doubts about taking away the extra calories he might be getting at night. On the other hand, he rarely nurses more than 2-3 mins at a time--he's mainly just latching on to go back to sleep, I think.

3. Do you recommend *Adventures in Tandem Nursing*? I am wanting a book that deals with nursing in pregnancy and after--I found *The Womanly ARt of Breastfeeding* rather lacking in this area.

4. I have always wondered if my supply was/is low since DS was/is so tiny (and I could only pump 1 oz from my big producing breast during a banner pumping session). If he keeps nursing through to the point of tandeming (and I have no reason to think he won't), will he just help to improve my supply or could this make any low-supply issues I might already have worse?

Thanks for any advice on these issues!

[Marissamom]

1. I found that the sensitivity didn't get any worse after about 12 weeks until after I was down to just colostrum, most of the soreness happens when DD latches badly or switches sides a bunch.

2. I did night-wean when I was about 3 months along and DD was 15 months. it was because I couldn't cosleep with her anymore, she would lay across me all night and I was having horrible back pain, and she was constantly kicking her dad. we also didn't feel like we could cosleep a  newborn and a toddler at the same time. by that point my supply had gotten low enough that night-nursing wasn't really giving extra calories. so we moved her to her own room, expecting that it would take a while before she would sleep through the night, but she apparently was only night-waking because of having her dad and I in the bed, because she immediately was sleeping through the night most of the time.so overnight she went from nursing 6-8 times a night to nursing once at night 20% of the time. we're now down to maybe 5% 5 months later, sick, teething, nightmares. 

3. I haven't read it, but I think it's really the only tandem nursing book out there.

4. hard to say, usually the increased demand causes increased production. did you ever try weighing before and after nursing to see how much he was actually getting? because how much you can pump isn't really a good indicator. also, some moms have a smaller storage capacity and baby nurses more frequently and gets the same amount of milk, or mom produces extra-dense milk. I usually was only able to pump 1-1.5 oz per side, I have a friend who has way more storage capacity, and she usually can pump 5 oz on one side, but her baby doesn't nurse nearly as often as mine did, and her expressed milk doesn't have nearly the fat content mine did judging by how much of a fat layer there is on top after it separates. if you had a true supply issue, you would probably have seen dehydration signs in your son though, so I would guess you never really had a supply issue. 

[mamafever]

Yes Adventures in Tandem Nursing would be the very first book I would recommend for this!!...and oh boy my nipples are so tender. I can stand the little bit of hurt, but I am more irritated then ever! I am only 15 weeks preggo so we will see what happens from here. :)

[konayossie]

Thanks for the replies, ladies! Guess it's off to buy Adventures in Tandem Nursing since the library doesn't have it.

Glad to hear the nipple pain seems to even out (as in, not get worse) by the end of the first tri. I am definitely feeling more irritable with his nursing, but it's still bearable.

And thanks for your rational input on my possible "low supply." I never did have access to sensitive scales before/after a feeding, so I was never able to measure that way. We've never had any diaper "output" issues. I guess my son's somewhat unique health issues make me paranoid. And ever since I read about storage capacity, I have been pretty sure I have low storage. So, thank you for being the voice of reason!