Nursing Mama's Thread

[Goldiemom]

I didn't see one, so I thought I would start it. Is anyone else nursing? If so, are you having any supply issues yet? Are you having any other issues that are effecting your nursing relationship? This is my first time nursing during pg, so I am hoping to find others who are were I am, or have been through it before.

[Slingin'Momto4]

I am still nursing my 23 mth old but only once at night or in the morning and not even every day. I hope he weans soon as I really dislike nursing while PG. I nursed my 4th throughout my 5th PG and it was way to hard on my body! I was exausted, sick all the time and it was just to much. I really don't want to go thru that again!

[mom0810]

I MAY be pregnant, (haven't tested yet but have all the symptoms), and I am nursing my 9 month old. I plan to continue through pregnancy and beyond, and I hope that I am able to... IF I am pregnant, I will join you in this thread. I'm testing this weekend. :

[Palmetto210]

Pregnant and nursing my 11.75 month old

We just confirmed our pregnancy last week, and I guess I am about 5 weeks along or so.

My dd will be a year on the 11th and she nurses about 3x/day. She starting weaning herself from 5x/ day around 10 months, so my guess is that as my milk supply changes she will drop all but her before bed nursing. She is a very active baby and mostly I think she forgets to nurse!

Bfing has been such a sweet experience for us, that while I am escatic about this pregnancy (we have been actively ttc for several months), I do feel badly that dd will not likely nurse too much longer. We'll see how it goes.

[Goldiemom]

I hope that I am able to at least continue to nurse her down to sleep. Everything else will take care of itself, but her boob induced comas at night are going to be something I will be needing. *sigh*

[jillybeans]

goldie hon, send some baby dust this way so you can have a TMT pal here!

[Goldiemom]

I would love to have you here with me Jill. I hope that it works out. Then I won't be the only one from our group due around this time.

[WendyC]

Last night the overwhelming thirst hit me, my lips dried out, my hands and feet dried out so bad they felt shrivled. I was miserable, but I couldn't detach from Ella long enough to get out of bed. Uggggh. Dehydration bites.

I have a feeling we are not in kansas anymore! This is new. I guess I need to stock a water bottle by the bed now. The last time I put a glass of water by the bed, Ella poured it all over us in the middle of the night. This time - I am thinking maybe a bottle with a CAP!

[Goldiemom]

I haven't had too many issues with nursing yet. I am terrified that once m/s sets in though that I will start suffering from loss of supply and dehydration. *shudder*

Wendy, I think that a cap would be a good idea. I have been startled by having water dumped on me at night, so I don't blame you at all!

[Goldiemom]

In the last 5 days or so my dd2 has been starting an interesting new nursing trend. She will latch on to one or the other side and then after a few minutes decide that that really wasn't the side she wanted. So she will switch to the other side for a few minutes. Then she will be done. She will also be attached to the boob for like half the night. Not so great on the old nips! Any ideas? Suggestions?

[Jposey]

I'm still nursing my 14mo DS all the time. He's nursing right now actually No issues yet (except tender nipples). I want to coninue through the whole pregnancy and eventually tandem them

[Palmetto210]

Goldiemom,
my dd is one year today (!) and she does the same switiching thing. For us, I think it symbolizes her desire to be mobile while nursing ( she is usually contorting her body in all directions), and also her desire for the emotional connection that nursing brings. Her behavior reminds me of when a child picks up & drops their lovey while walking across the room..they vacillate b/w wanting to hold the lovey and wanting to get up and go.

Sometimes I find it hard to be patient during the switching. I figure this will be a short season as was each of our nursing challenges.

[aran]

Hi. My DS(2) still nurses, night and day. My daytime supply dropped pretty rapidly after implantation, but nighttime is still OK for now (it's always been much better, for me). I had supply issues, so I am really sensitive about losing the milk I worked so hard to establish. I am keeping my vitamin B6 intake low (only 5 mg/d for now, unless I become violently ill with m/s) to avoid putting the extra (potential) strain on my supply that B6 can do at high doses.

Originally Posted by Goldiemom

In the last 5 days or so my dd2 has been starting an interesting new nursing trend. She will latch on to one or the other side and then after a few minutes decide that that really wasn't the side she wanted. So she will switch to the other side for a few minutes. Then she will be done. She will also be attached to the boob for like half the night. Not so great on the old nips! Any ideas? Suggestions?

DS did something like that for a few weeks. But he switched sides, like, 50 times during each nursing session. It was so tiring! He loved the autonomy of being able to do it himself. Later, I found out that he figured out that when one side lets down, so does the other, and he liked to switch midstream... maybe he likes the foremilk better... I dunno. Anyhow, it lasted a few weeks, and slowly died down when the novelty wore off. Didn't see how old DD was... is she teething? DS is attached all night when he's teething. G/L

[jessitron]

Hello all! Still nursing my 19-month-old here. She nurses in the morning, after work, before bed, and during the night. We're going to have to do something about the middle-of-the-night nursing, but I'm not looking forward to it. She's very stubborn about wanting her munch when she wakes up, and it's so much easier to give it to her than to get her to sleep any other way. Oh wait, there is no other way.

Yes to the water bottle by the bed! That's been essential every since last pregnancy. I got some SIGG bottles from theecstore.com for my birthday and they're perfect. The water doesn't taste nasty after sitting in the bottle for a day or two.

Those of you who have done this before: does supply drop right away, or is it gradual? I am taking B6 but not a ton... 100mg/day.

[Goldiemom]

Strange ? and a bit off topic, but what does B6 do?

[jessitron]

I hear that it can help increase the length of your luteal period when breastfeeding. It seems to have helped with that, and fulfilled its purpose.

[aran]

I pasted below the text of a post I made in the August Nursing Mamas TTC thread on vitamin B6 and lactation (My recollection is that it was in response to someone using B6 to lengthen their luteal phase, but who heard rumor of b6 and supply problems too):

Originally Posted by aran

Originally Posted by http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/pa/pa_breastfe_hhg.htm

Another group of drugs that should be avoided because they can suppress milk production are ergotamines (for migraine), birth control pills with a high estrogen content (most birth control pills are OK), vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) in large doses, and many antidepressants.

Originally Posted by http://www.healthwwweb.com/cgi-bin/request2.pl?file=lactexce.htm

Do not take vitamin B6 supplements, as they may contribute to lowered milk production.

Doesn't seem to be widely reported, though.

I just did a search on Pubmed for "pyridoxine lactation suppression" and got nine hits, most showing that high doses of B6 can be used to stop lactation (e.g., for mothers who had stillbirths, etc.) or reduce milk supply for mothers already lactating. Unfortunately, the abstracts available don't have much about the doses used, and I don't have access to the full articles. The one that has dose info just tested one dose level - 300 mg - which caused "and acute fall in prolactin" levels. So that doesn't give us any info about whether 50 mg would be enough to see a significant effect on milk supply.

Makes me wonder how many people think their milk dried up due to pregnancy hormones when maybe it did because of the massive B6 doses in some prenatals!

I hear vitex can help w/ luteal phase length, but I think it also can decrease milk supply. Sorry I don't have any better suggestions.

ETA: Found this about B6 doses from an institute of Medicine text

Originally Posted by http://darwin.nap.edu/openbook/0309065542/html/183.html

Very high pyridoxine doses (200 to 600 mg/day parenterally; 600 mg/day orally) after delivery have been used to successfully inhibit or suppress lactation (Foukas, 1973; Marcus, 1975; Scaglione and Vecchione, 1982). However, the results of other clinical trials on the antilactogenic effect of pyridoxine are conflicting (Scaglione and Vecchione, 1982). No evidence of antilactogenic effects at lower oral doses was found.

But this is to stop lactation entirely. I am not sure if anyone ever looked at just reductions in supply at lower doses...

[jessitron]

That's fascinating! So B6 probably lengthens the luteal phase by decreasing prolactin levels somewhat. That sounds fair to me - I'm happy to have my luteal phase lengthened so I can get pregnant at the cost of a little bit of milk.

[Slingin'Momto4]

I took 400mg of vit B6 and I believe it did lengthen my LP and my milk seemed fine I am still taking 100mg of B6, that won't interfere with milk after delivery, right?

[aran]

Originally Posted by Slingin'Momto4

I took 400mg of vit B6 and I believe it did lengthen my LP and my milk seemed fine I am still taking 100mg of B6, that won't interfere with milk after delivery, right?

If you were OK with 400, I'll bet 100 after delivery would be OK. But if you did have a problem, you could always switch prenatals to one with less b6. I was pg in June and had problems with 100, but I have always struggled to maintain my supply, so that's a different story. When I switched to a low b6 prenatal, my supply bounced back immediately. I am sure it varies quite a bit among mamas.