How is tandem nursing going?

[*Karen*]

Other than the twin mamas of course!

How are your toddlers doing? DS asks almost every time he sees DD nurse, but is usually OK with waiting until later. His latch is HORRIBLE and he is biting me really hard every time he nurses, so I can usually only take it for about 5 minutes. He has always been the kind of kid that wants to nurse for 30-45 minutes, obviously this is no longer an option. Eventually I will get to an LLL meeting for some latch help, but I've had many people look at it and it seems to look fine to them.

[Qerratsmom]

I'm happy NOT to report anything about tandem nursing. The last time dd nursed was the night I was in labor! After 3 nights at grandma's house and then seeing my boobs changed and full of milk, dd informed me that she was a big sister now and didn't need to nurse. WOW! We had a "end of nursing party" for her complete with a boob cake and that has been that. YAY!

I did tandem for 10 months though with ds1 and dd.

[balancedmama]

DD didn't nurse the day I was in labor or the day after, for which I was very grateful! After that she's been nursing about once a day. I have been enforcing the rule that the baby has to nurse first, since I never know if he needs one side or two and he goes a long time between nursings so I want him to have first dibs. I have to say that having a nursing toddler has been a HUGE blessing b/c DS has a hard time latching on my L breast sometimes and it was getting painfully engorged. So much easier to just pop DD on!

The first few days DD's latch was unfabulous but it has gotten better. She is THRILLED to get milk now though and talks about it a lot! She says "There's a lot of milk in there!" and points to my breast. Or says "milkies are yummy in my tummy!" It is pretty cute.

[Ooey]

Here is another question for Tandem nursing mamas...

Did you get engorged after baby was born? Did you have a day when your "milk came in?" I nursed DD through most of the pregnancy and she didn't officially wean until DS was born, so I still had lots of milk. I was curious to see if I would still have the typical swell up a day or two after he was born, and it turned out that I kind of did...I guess I could say production volume went way up, but no engorgement per say, at least nothing compared to what it was like when my milk first came in with DD. I'm curious to know what others experiences were.

[MamaHen2J&J]

I've pretty much cut my daughter off... I tried letting her nurse but it was extremely uncomfortable for me...and I felt angry about it... Josiah wants to nurse all day all night and having a toddler wanting to comfort nurse is just too much for me.

[KrisCrunch]

At first she wanted to nurse everytime the baby did. I explained to her that she had teeth and the baby didn't and I think some of it sunk in. It still kind of hurts to nurse her but not the new baby if that makes any sense. Anyways I did get engorged and my milk came in big time on day 2. It was nice having her around for that part. She filled her little belly but then ended up with weird poop and she didn't make it to the potty in time and it was pretty gross. Her poop is still a little weird but nothing like that first day.

[LianneM]

DS is doing great, I am so pleased with it he wants to nurse a lot with her - like if she's asleep, he'll ask to nurse and he wants me to wake her up to nurse with him he has also been fine with waiting if she was nursing and I needed him to wait. I have tons of milk, no major engorgement, just really a smooth transition

[Twwly]

DS magically weaned himself a week before DD came. He was down to nursing 2x a day, but just stopped sucking. He'd put his lips on but not do anything. So I told him "either you nurse or not, ok" and he'd opt not. (I was really afraid of him biting, made me really uncomfortable because I think I would have gone through the roof).

I decided to go with 'don't offer, don't refuse' but he just hasn't asked! So...we're done. I'm glad. I think I'll spike his breakfast cereal with breastmilk fairly regularly but I'm really really glad to be done. Nursing him while pregnant was living hell for me.