Newly Preg and Still Nursing?

[spiralmg]

Anyone newly pregnant and still nursing a toddler? If so, pray tell what are your plans with this? Keep doing it? Stop? Or???

We are still day and night nursing. DS shows no signs of wanting to stop! I'm not sure how my body will continue to adjust to it though. I'm curious to hear what others are doing.

[Satori]

dd is still nursing, I figure at her age she'll stop when the milk dries up.

[Amoreena]

Originally Posted by spiralmg

Anyone newly pregnant and still nursing a toddler? If so, pray tell what are your plans with this? Keep doing it? Stop? Or??? We are still day and night nursing. DS shows no signs of wanting to stop! I'm not sure how my body will continue to adjust to it though. I'm curious to hear what others are doing.

veteran of nursing through pregnancy and long-term tandem nursing here! ds1 was 26m when i got pg with ds2, 35m when ds2 was born. i had been pg at 22m and had an early miscarriage, so hormones may have affected this, but ds1 seemed to be cutting back all on his own around 2yo ... he'd been an hourly nurser around the clock the first year, bi-hourly around the clock the second. between change in milk volume and/or taste (i never knew for sure), ds cut back to 5 minutes or so at bedtime every night through pg, had pretty much quit in the daytimes, then the last 3 weeks of pg started skipping some nights. i thought he might wean before baby arrived, but he didn't and he started up nursing more often after baby and new milk came. we're tandem nursing, but it's down to a few times a week at bedtime for ds1.

[juliasmum]

Nursing toddler here, but she is a bit older (2.5) and really just kind of does mini nursing sessions, sometimes before nap, always before bed and sometimes in the morning when she wakes up. I really see her weaning before the pg is over, but I wouldn't mind tandem nursing.

[dziejen]

My dd is 3.5 and loves to nurse but I am now only nursing at bedtime and during the night. I do see her cutting back or weaning when my supply drops or the milk changes to colostrum but I can also imagine that she will try to nurse again when baby arrives. Just taking it one day at a time here...

[Spark]

Here's the thread from a couple days ago if you didn't see it.
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=268060

My DD turned one last month. She's nursing. Hasn't changed her patterns at all since nursing. When I was pregnant with her I was nursing my DS. But, he's since weaned. I really can't remember pregnancy WITHOUT nursing! :LOL

I STILL really recommend "Adventures In Tandem Nursing" for anyone pregnant and nursing whether or not you're planning to tandem nurse. GREAT information!

[IncaMama]

yup, still nursing my DS (just turned 2 two weeks ago). he nurses in the early morning, once in the afternoon, and once at bedtime typically. last night he nursed 3 times in the middle of the night, but that's not typical - usually just once.

i'm not sure what we're gonna do about weaning. i am sort of leading him to his sippy rather than my breast, but i'm not that forceful about it. and if i can tell that he really wants to nurse i let him - usually he's just bored or thirsty and it can be appeased by a sippy of something.

my nipples are starting to feel a bit sore, but nothing unbearable yet. i'll probably end up tandem nursing, but we'll see.

[MamaFern]

im in the nov. due date club..

im nursing my 2 year old. i have to say im not that into it and he has cut down a lot. im just really sensitive and he is an acrobatic nurser.. but i have no planns to stop nursing him either. i just tell him he needs to be really gentle with mamma and he says ok.

[cariadanam]

Does anyone know when milk starts to dry up? My daughter is hardly nursing and I was wondering if that is why?

[Amoreena]

Originally Posted by cariadanam

Does anyone know when milk starts to dry up? My daughter is hardly nursing and I was wondering if that is why? Mama to Tristan 3/9/1

my nursing toddler told me there was milk all along, but i never knew where to believe him. i stopped trying to hand express somewhere in the middle of my pg, because it made me that much more sore. then about 3 weeks before birth, i tried again and got colostrum. i was so amazed, because i had assumed colostrum only came after birth. had never had any reason or inkling to try hand expressing while pg with my first!

from all i've read, the changes are different for everyone, and the timing is different, and some nurslings don't like the changes and others couldn't care less. about 2/3 of children nursing when mama gets pregnant end up weaning, according to a couple LLL books.

cariadanam, my ds2 is named tristan and was born march 20 2002 :-)

[marisa]

just found out that i'm unexpectedly pregnant with number three, and i'm nursing my 3 year old as well as my 14 month old. i'm hoping i can gently wean the 3 year old before the baby is here.

[Spark]

Marisa, I know quite a few moms that have nursed 3, but it's all about meeting your needs, too! I'm sure that if you really want to wean him you'll be able to.

So milk drying up... seriously GO GET "Adventures In Tandem Nursing." Go get it! It's SO valuable! Milk composition changes as soon as implantation occurs. The changes usually aren't too drastic, making only a few mothers (and talking toddlers) take note as early as implantation. At some point during pregnancy (and this widely varies) milk may turn to more of a weaning variety. It becomes thicker, saltier (heavy with colostrum) stronger tasting and in limited supply. This is brought on by pregnancy hormones and typically happens at the beginning or middle of pregnancy. That said, 30% of women never see a drop in supply during their pregnancies.
Paraphrased from Adventures In Tandem Nursing. There's MUCH more in the book.

[littleteapot]

Still nursing my 19.5 month old. I don't plan to wean her. I highly doubt she'd wean herself, she loves her nub.

[Jennifer3141]

Ok, I was going to wait until our state's LLL conference to purchase "Adventures" but I think I'll order it tonight.

I am trying VERY hard to continue BFing my 11 month old daughter through this pregnancy but I'm having supply issues. She seems perfectly content to use me as a life size pacifier 5-6 times a day but without formula supplementation, the wet dipes STOP.

I got pregnant when she was 5 months old (the pain while nursing was what clued me into being pregnant so quickly!) and I'm so proud of both of s for sticking it out these past 6 months. It hurt like heck there and now we're dealing with DD's frustration but we only have 13 weeks to go. We can do this! (I hope.)

Jen

[hunnybumm]

My DS is 16 months and still nursing 6x a day and started nursing 2 - 3x a night. I have noticed a slight drop in my supply. DS will not nurse when he is awake if there isn't any milk. I sometime suppliment with Fenugrek. I plan to nurse the entire pregnancy if he will contiune. I feel it is very important to nurse for at least 2 years so I feel a tad selfish getting pregnant so soon (we have been trying) so I really hope my supply lasts, if not I plan to take suppliments to boost supply. I really want to tandum nurse once this baby gets here.

My nipples just started getting sore, but from what I have heard it usually only lasts during the first trimest and tends to get better after that.

[1Plus2]

I'm pregnant with baby #4 and still nursing my twins who are 2.5 years. I don't have plans to wean them right now but I am nightweaning. Lillie was still nursing every 2 hours during the night which was starting to wear me down during the day. They are doing fairly well with it...we cosleep and I'm doing it as gently as possible. I will admit though that I would not be heartbroken if they did self-wean. I too was going to wait on buying Adventures in Tandem Nursing but I think I'll buy it from the LLL site right away.