Anyone else nursing? - Page 3

[kohlby]

I'm still nursing, usually twice a night. My daughter has cut down and I'm really hoping she doesn't self-wean. She will be almost 3 when this baby arrives. I tandem nursed for over two years. My son nursed until he was a month shy of 5. My daughter was born a couple months before he turned 3. Tandem nursing was much easier than I expected. Actually, nursing just one would have been more difficult. I loved that the older child could help me out with engorgement! Plus, my son can be rather challenging at times and I think that the nursing helped the transition to a little sister go really well.

I did teach my son a 10 second countdown when I nursed through the pg with my daughter. When I was ready to stop nursing, I counted down. There were sometimes that all he got was 10 seconds. I found it helped a lot when nursing while pg. My supply dropped at 3.5 weeks pg and I didn't have enough milk for him to swallow. (I get hyperemesis so I'm sure me being dehydrated doesn't help). When the colostrum starting coming in at around 24 weeks pg, nursing got much easier.

[mom2tatum]

thanks for sharing such a positive post on tandem nursing. I think thats important. My friend feels the same way, and I can see it going both ways for us.

But, like with anything, there are good points and bad points I foresee, and for us, I'd personally like to learn other ways to comfort my son and put him to sleep and make him feel special, etc. when other baby arrives. That is just something that I have been wanting for awhile now, and I cannot seem to do that because he only wants to nurse for comforts...and I guess in a way, I feel I have done him a disservice because now he has to learn that there are other things mommy is able to do to make me feel better. Does that make sense? Sometimes I really want to give him a hug instead, sometimes I want to just cuddle, rub his back, etc, but he will say "no, mom. nursie."

At the same time, I must recognize that by him giving up nursing during prg, I am also giving up a fabulous tool for various obstacles we face daily. I know that. But I also have faith that I will learn how to be an even better mom by creating other tools for us, because in the end, I am pretty sure that I will be happier and a less stressed better mommy if I can just nurse the new baby. If he doesn't seem ready to wean, and I have tried gently encouraging him every so often, then I will definitely roll with it...

I like the counting btw, too. I just started doing that and it seems to go quite well, but I don't even think my ds wants to nurse most of the time - I think he just makes a connection between "I'm tired" to "I need to nurse", but then he gets it and doesn't even really suck and hops right down. I think he is figuring it all out on his own.

[salento]

Hi all

I just found out that I am 7wks pregnant and I am nursing my 18 mo ds. I was planning on a larger age gap but... how do you make god laugh? tell him your plans...

It's great to see this thread and so many people on a similar journey to myself.

My nipples don't hurt yet but ds does seem to be feeding more frequently than before (i don't know how to count - maybe 10 times in a 24 hour period?). In an ideal world I wouldn't tandem but I can see ds is so not ready to wean yet. I've ordered the adventures in TN book.

Also, to be honest, right now I am so tired all the time that it's lovely to have a way to really connect with ds which allows me to lie down!

good luck to all

Venice x