Did your dc wake up at night to nurse while you were in active labor?

[shell024]

I've been worried about this. Ds (will be 23 months when this one is due) still wakes a couple times a night to nurse back to sleep. I'm worried that I will be too uncomfortable to nurse him and he will just be upset and start screaming or something. He gets pretty ticked off when dp tries to comfort him instead of me.

Did anyone encounter this situation? Any tips on how to handle this if it happens? I'm hoping that he just won't wake up if I am in labor at night, and that if he does I will be able to nurse him back to sleep and continue laboring. But what if I just can't do it? I would feel so guilty if he gets really upset, and I wonder if that would just make me even more uncomfortable?

[aylaanne]

will he take pumped milk? If he will, you may want to start trying to give him pumped milk every once in a while so that he can get used to it. If you're UCing, you may also want to get more firm about DP being the one to comfort him at night sometimes, just so it's less traumatic if you need it to happen that way during your birth.

Those are just ideas, though, I have no actual experience with this.

[Ruthla]

When I was nursing while pg, I ended up laboring during the day. DD1 DID want to nurse when I got to the pushing stage though- "Hey, Mommy's naked in bed, it must be time to nurse!" After about 30 seconds of nursing, I'd had enough! I had DH take her out of the room at that point, and they both came back in a few minutes later just after DD2 was born.

Kids are pretty reslient, and they seem to understand when you have a good reason for saying "no" to something. If you truly feel that nursing is too much for you at the time you're in labor, then I think your child will sense that and not push too hard for it. I don't think there's any reason to partially night-wean just because you're afraid he might want to nurse while you're in labor. You may not labor during the nightttime. You may not mind nursing. He may not ask to nurse.

I found that DD1 did cut back on nursing a lot while I was pg, it just came naturally when my milk supply diminished. You may or may not have a similar experience.

[SublimeBirthGirl]

My then 27 month old was night weaned when my 2nd was born, but I would have turned her down totally guilt-free had she wanted to nurse during labor. Telling a 23 year old "no" is not going to do any permanent damage, trust me.