New Baby

[liebra]

My partner gave birth to our first baby on Sunday Nov 16. It was a wonderful homebirth lasting a quick and intense 4 hours. Our midwives were amazing and the post partum care is fabulous. Our primary midwife is even a lesbian too.

We were wondering if any other couples used the non-bio mom to supplement nursing fairly early on in their baby's life. He loves to just suck away, but doesn't need to be feeding so much....and I want to make him happy too
I'd love to hear other's experiences.
Liebra
Ontario,Canada

[Nicke]

I don't have any advice regarding the non bio mom nursing (though I have heard of it!). What I just wanted to say was

Congratulations on your new arrival

[Henry's Mom]

Mazel tov!
We did some non-nutrative (as we called it!) nursing of both my boys, at times they wanted to suck without necessarily being hungry and we were not crazy about pacifiers. Both guys seemed comforted and it was another great way for me as the non-bio mom to feel so close to them.
Best of all things for all of you.

[liebra]

thanks

Hi henry's mom
Thanks for your congrats and info about non-nutrative feeding. How early did you start nursing your sons? Our little guy is less than a week and I just don't want to interfere with his 'meals' from my partner.
thanks again,
Liebra

[indiegirl]

Congrats and welcome to Mothering!

[Quirky]

Congratulations on the birth of your son and welcome to MDC!

Personally I would wait for a bit (until he's six weeks or so) before starting non-nutritive nursing (NNN? :LOL) your son; the early weeks are critical for him to a) learn how to nurse effectively and b) establish your partner's supply. He probably does need to be feeding so much right now, even if he's gaining like a chunky monkey, to get things well-established in the first weeks. He will also go through several growth spurts in the first few weeks where he will need to be nursing non-stop to get your partner's supply up (it will seem like he's nursing all evening and night and there's nothing coming out, but that's normal!)

Here is an awesome website with information on nursing, although I haven't found anything in there yet directly related to your question: http://www.kellymom.com/bf/index.html See especially the pages here: http://www.kellymom.com/bf/start/index.html

Also, you might want to cross-post in the Breastfeeding - Getting Started and Overcoming Difficulties forum to see if any of the nursing mamas there might have an answer for you.

Enjoy your babymoon!

[liebra]

thanks for the info.
I think that waiting at least 6 weeks sounds like a good idea. I wouldn't want to confuse him or mess up his latch. Our baby is one week old today and I am still staring at him in amazement.

[robynberkley]

CONGRATS...motherhood is a wonderful experience...enjoy!!!

[Henry's Mom]

sorry it took a while to respond-away for the holiday.
With our first we did not do any nnn until 6 weeks or so, with the younger guy a bit earlier. It was never a food substitute, we would mostly do it after nursing.
I know what you mean by the amazement, those early weeks are such magic- it's still magic enjoy!