I just found out that I'm pregnant again after two months of low milk supply issues. My supply seems to be continuing to drop, and even though I am determined to nurse my eight month old first and supplement after, I think the end is very near.
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First, I will say that the last two months messed up his sleep something awful. He went from sleeping a 6 hr block plus two 3 hr blocks (3ish wakeups per night) to waking every 1-2 hrs, and occasionally needing constant nursing, switching sides every 20 minutes for 2 hr blocks at a time. Since we have identified the diminishing supply issue and begun supplementing with expressed breastmilk during the day, he has had a few good nights sprinkled in with nights of waking every 1-2 hours.
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Also I will say that we have not yet begun to introduce formula, but we will soon. We are using expressed breastmilk to supplement, but my freezer stash is dwindling very fast. He takes the bottle well during the day - although he prefers to have it from daddy rather than me, he'll take it from me if pressed. But last night was the first time we've ever tried the bottle overnight and it was a disaster, both from me and from daddy.
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We have been co-sleeping on a futon on the floor in the nursery (DH gets the bed in the master BR), and my "go to sleep" strategy for both going to sleep and for going BACK to sleep after nightwakings is to nurse. We nurse sitting up in the rocker for the initial going down, and then for wakeups I nurse him side-lying and try to go back to sleep. This works well - in spite of his many wakeups, I get a reasonable amount of sleep most nights, and he goes back to sleep quickly.
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I am wondering what on earth I'm going to do once I dry up. I suppose I could dry nurse him, intending to tandem nurse after baby is born, but that means dry nursing for 6-7 long months which sounds somewhere between uncomfortable and painful. Plus, I'm afraid he's waking frequently because he's hungry, so he will need to have a bottle sometime during the night, and I'm worried he won't take it.
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How do I adjust to this? What other strategies can I try? I'm SO reliant on my magic boobs as the ultimate sleep weapon, I have no idea what to do without them. Any and all suggestions welcomed, both for replacing nursing in the bedtime routine and handling nightwakings!
