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[aoifesmiles]

Anyone breastfeeding while pregnant? Anyone thinking of tandem feeding? My daughter is 2.5 and breastfeeding, not that much though, mostly just to get to sleep at night. I'm open to tandem feeding, just planning on going with the flow. I'll be leaving her for a week in June, so I'm thinking things might naturally move on then. We'll see though!

Mary

[tillymonster]

I am as well and quite frankly-- it hurts and I would love to wean naturally but not sure how longi can take this!

Tandem nursing would be ok but I worry that I'll have sore nipples for 6mo+ like I did with DD and I'm not sure I can handle both.

It is painful to nurse where if she wants to longer then like 10 minutes I'm cringing inside. Tonight was especially bad because she had a nap at 6pm so bedtime nursing was endless. She also wants me to rock her wearing a Mai tai wrap and that's become painful pressure on my uterus.

[orangeclover]

Hi! Just joined the group and saw this nursing thread.  I am nursing dd 16 mo. and she still nurses A LOT!!!  It was very sore for awhile, but has calmed down.  I am just trying to deal with her nursing more because my supply had dropped considerably. She shows no signs of weaning herself, so I think I will be tandem nursing, and trying to think of ways to prepare her for sharing mommie's nummies. 

The constant night nursing is what gets painful still.  Have you night weaned yet?  I am playing with trying to night wean her, but she seams to still need it for comfort, and dh is having a hard time getting her back down if I don't nurse her when she wakes.  Any ideas on night weaning?

[aidenn]

I was tandeming both my DDs when I became pregnant, but I weaned my older DD when I found out.  She was 4 and probably ready to wean anyhow, and I just needed a good excuse.  My younger DD is extremely tactile and while I've cut down her sessions, I imagine she will tandem with the new baby as well.

[LivingSky]

I'm nursing my 20 month old DS still but not sure how much longer I'll last. He only nurses 2-3 times per day, usually once in the morning at wake up, once to go down for a nap around 11:30-noon, and then bedtime. The mid-day nurse often gets skipped if we're on the go and he doesn't seem to mind/notice. Saturday night he actually didn't nurse to sleep with me for the first time ever, by his own choice - we just snuggled while DH read.

orangeclover - I night weaned shortly after I got pregnant - it just hurt too much and I wasn't able to get back to sleep after. Now DH sleeps beside DS and I sleep on the far side (DS is on his own bed with our bed pushed up against it). Not having me beside him really helped DS calm down about not nursing during the night. There were certainly a few rough nights but well worth it to me.

[orangeclover]

@livingsky-

Thanks, it's nice to hear someone else went through it too.  I feel so bad, but night nursing is just too much for me right now, and I am still so tired with this pregnancy that any sleep lost is felt.  I hope we get through the rough time quickly, but she just won't give up, and hubby ends up on the couch with her cause if she's anywhere near me, only nursing will do.   Thanks again.

Aidenn, that's a good point.  Dd is really tactial too, and spacial, so i think that plays into her need to nurse.  How did you get first daughter ready for sharing?

[aidenn]

orangeclover - When I was pregnant with DD2, I prepped DD1 by just saying that milkies were changing to make room for the new baby in mommy's tummy.  She's always been really verbal, so she picked it up pretty logically.  However, this time I've been super lazy preparing DD2 for this baby.  DD2 isn't verbal hardly at all and she's very very spirited, so I haven't even bothered night weaning.  I'm losing sleep to night nursing, but listening to her scream bloody murder (and before her, I had NO IDEA how loud kids could get!) for 45 minutes is worse, so I grit my teeth through the latch.  I am not a good person to ask!

[orangeclover]

The screaming thing I totally understand!  It is heartbreaking, and I normally give in, dh is much stronger.  thanks for your info though.  My 1st weaned himself when i was 2 months pregnant with#2, and started nursing again just a few times after dd was born, so wasn't something I really had to deal with before!
 

[Mama Ana]

I am 14 weeks pregnant with #2 and still nursing DD who is 20 months. It was SO painful in the beginning that I started weaning during day time. Night time nursing kind of just stopped. If she asks to nurse at night or during the day I say, "Let's snuggle!" and she is pretty okay with that. I still nurse her at nap time and bedtime, which at this point is just dry nursing. Nap time she still falls asleep while nursing but at bedtime she will come in by me for a few minutes, nurse, and then go back out by dad and come to bed with him. At the bed time nursing she only nurses for a few minutes depending on our day and how I am feeling. If it's a busy day and she's gone without a nap, she might fall asleep nursing Sometimes I just get so touched out and am sick of being touched that I tell her I am gonna count to ten and then we are all done. I count on my hand so she can see and also out loud. That works really well for us. By ten she's ready to pop off and pulls my shirt down. By doing this, she's even started picking up counting and can count "one...two". 

It works for us and she hasn't had any complaints or aggravations. Which to be honest surprises me cos she's always been such a boob-fiend. Once I start producing again we will see where the road takes us. 

It would be nice to tandem nurse but I won't be devastated if we don't.  I can see her weaning completely those first few days when it's just colostrum.

[dollysods]

#1 I nursed until about 8 months pregnant with # 2 and she self-weaned around 2.5.  I am nursing #2 (almost 2.5) at this point for maybe 5 minutes total daily and have very little milk.  In fact, she tells me "no milky" daily.  I would be shocked if she continues much longer.  I am not sure if I would be interested in tandem nursing.  I have some friends who have and they really regretted it, feeling it was too much touch, too demanding, etc.  And of course others thought it made everything easier.  We'll see...

[aoifesmiles]

Since my daughter only nurses to sleep at night I don't think I'd mind the tandem nursing and think in a way it would be nice for my toddler to still feel like she's my baby still as well. I'm doubting that she will still be nursing by then though. She's picked out one boob for her and one for the baby. Pretty funny.

[tillymonster]

My 3.25yo still wants to nurse during the day (she always asks once and sometimes I can distract!) and to go to sleep. Then she goes all night w/o nursing and wants to in the AM. I usually can only stand a few minutes! Then she wants to play her toys on my breasts and just put her hand on them to pat them.

At this point in the game-- it's uncomfortable for me and I just want to stop. My boobs are so sensitive and tender and I think it's to do with her toothy latch and diddling. I was hoping she'd have lost interest.

I'd really like DH to help with nighttime but he's very reluctant and just doesn't commit. I can nurse her to sleep in like 10 minutes and that's the only session I don't mind.

Any tips for me ladies? I feel like I've tried everything I can think of!

[aoifesmiles]

I've got my dd in the habit of thinking nursing is just for going to bed. She still asks in the morning sometimes, but I don't feel like it, so I just tell her to not be silly, it's not bedtime. Then immediately move her on to eat some breakfast or distract her with my phone or something. I too am finding it uncomfortable. I'm feeding her to sleep now and sort of white knuckling it. She sort of clamps right when she falls asleep. The joys, eh!!

[LivingSky]

Originally Posted by aoifesmiles 

She sort of clamps right when she falls asleep.

Yes, this! UGH. DS is doing this now too - as he's 99% asleep he seems to start to bite down. Not cool. It's not so bad when nursing him to sleep at night but for his naptime it's brutal!

tillymonster - I don't have much for suggestions for you, though the biggest help I find when DS wants to nurse is to give him something to eat, preferably something that will take him a while. For us, changing nursing time to snuggle time did not work - when DS is that close to the boobs he usually just wants access As to your DH, I think my DH is well aware that if he didnt help with the nighttime parenting when I asked, he'd be sleeping in his car! Thankfully he really doesn't mind. But, I very rarely ask him to actually put DS to sleep, because it's just so much faster and easier for me to nurse him down. Once he's asleep though he belongs to DH until morning

[aoifesmiles]

I have 3 kids, each time I have a baby my dh has no choice but to deal with night time situations with the older ones because I'm attached to a baby all night. ;-) After a while the older ones get so used to it that they only look for their daddy. Score!! Hahahaha!!! He's the one bouncing bed to bed and now I get a full night's sleep with my 2 year old who sleeps all night (we co sleep).