[cutic]

Hi,

I know that it is quite natural to lose milk supply during pregancy. I am now 21 weeks pregnant and until 18 weeks I still have had plenty of milk. Then, all of a sudden it is gone. I can't hear my dd swallowing anymore, also my boob got back to its original size (my dd was nursing only from the right one). Of course, I knew that this could have happened but I am sad. My dd is 31 months now and she went down with her nusings from 8 and more times a day to 2 or 3. She only nurses before sleep or if she has a nap and once in the night, then when she wakes up. I still keep offering her as I really would prefer that she continues. I have heard that very often colostrum appears in the third trimester and I hope she will want to stick to nursing until then.

My question is, how often does it happen that a child weans completely (dd will be almost 3 years old when a new baby comes) during pregnancy and how often will a child keep nursing? What are my chances for tandem nursing because this is what I was preparing for?

Dd's stools became much harder and I clearly see she is not getting any more milk. I also thought I needed to increase her milk intake by adding for the first time some cow's milk to her diet. She actually likes kefir and will drink a little bit of milk, she eats cheeses, all sorts of them. Do I need to worry? ALso what upset me is that she has been always so healthy, we never had any illness and now I just worry that she is not getting any more protection from my milk.

Need your support, please!

 

[MiamiMami]

Exact same thing has happened here. Dd was a very avid nurser until my milk went bye bye. I actually keep encouraging her to latch on and she won't for more than a second or two. She started holding her poop and it is harder for her to pass now. We also went through her first major illness here last week

 

[sparklefairy]

One of the LLL books had a number -- I think it was in the older edition of Mothering Your Nursing Toddler. It was a fairly high percentage, but it wasn't at all clear how often weaning was mom's doing or the child's.

 

[crunchy_mama]

I think it is about 70% of babies wean during pregnancy.

 

[Nazsmum]

I think that I maybe w/baby

I have a 9 month old how will this effect me? Anyone...

 

[jee'smom]

My dd was a nurse-a-holic. When I became pg, she also went down to only 2-3 nursings/day, and about 30 secs. each time. When baby came, milk came back, she started nursing again. But she had developed a bad latch, so we had to reteach her and try different positions to get it right. Even though it was hard in the beginning, I was so glad I tandem nursed. Every one told me that the beginning after a new baby's birth is so hard, b/c you never get any sleep (when toddler's awake, newborn sleeps, and vice versa), but with us, I'd nurse newborn to sleep, put him in the bed, roll over, nurse toddler to sleep, and then nap about 3 hours every day!!! If either woke up, I just nursed the them back to sleep!

I think if you keep offering, maybe she'll keep nursing. If not, then at least it was a gentle weaning. Good luck!

nazsmum: You might not lose your milk. But, if you lose your milk soon, then he might need to go on formula. If you lose it later, like in 3 months, he can go on cow's milk. Let's hope you don't lose your milk.

 

[Peony]

I'm 29 weeks pg, dd is 3.5 years old, I lost my milk even before I found out I was pg, it was that quick. DD was a very avid nurser at that point, about every hour during the day, and she had just started sleeping through the night a couple weeks prior. She is barely nursing at this point, one every few days or so, and she'll only latch on for 30 seconds. I don't think she'll wean at this point, she talks about about nursing with baby, but it's not going to be easy. I know her latch is awful at this point so that is going to take alot of work.

 

[velveeta]

Gosh, we all sound so similar! My DS is nearly 3.5, and I *just* lost my milk here at 17 weeks. Well, maybe it was last week. I noticed about a week ago a dramatic rise in DS's food intake, and that was a clue. Nursing has hurt a lot, and so today when he laid down for a nap, he asked to nurse, and as we were nursing, I asked, "Is there any milk in there?" He paused, looked at me, and didn't say anything. I said, "It is okay. I will still let you nurse! Is there any milk?" And he said uh-uh and laughed. I wonder how long it has been that way! I am sure he thought I would say ok, no nursing then. Poor baby!

I told him that the milk would come back when Baby comes after Christmas. Who knows what will happen from now until then. Weaning is okay with me, as is tandeming. Tomorrow's topic at LLL is pregnancy and tandem nursing, so let's see what they say!

 

[AtomicOcean]

You're so lucky your LLL group covers that topic! Mine covers the same 4 newborn ones over and over.

I am 15 weeks pregnant and dd isn't getting more than a mouthful at this point, but after about a week of skipping most sessions, she's back to almost normal. I am so happy. Yesterday, we talked at length (she's 23 months, btw) about how there isn't much milk and how it will come back and she'll be able to nurse with the baby, so I'm praying she keeps it up. She also giggled so hard when I started asking her if it tasted like... and I gave a whole list of silly things and then asked if it was yucky. OMG, she said it was yucky!

 

[turtlemama77]

Get a copy of Adventures in Tandem Nursing. There is a lot of helpful information for mamas who are pregnant and nursing, too!

As far as weaning, I'm not sure what percentage of babies wean at some point during pregnancy. I have heard of a LOT of mamas who nursed while pregnant and went on to tandem, so 60 or 70% seems really high. My milk was pretty much gone at around 20 weeks, and dd kept right on nursing, although she did cut down for a while to just before nap and bedtime.

I did start offering dd rice milk as another beverage choice, but she mostly drinks water. Cow's milk or other milk isn't necessary...the nutrients/calcium can be gotten from other food sources.

 

[jee'smom]

seun: whay don't you speak to the leader about offering other topics of interest. At my group meeting, they have many talks, and then the floor is open to any other questions people might have.

 

[fiddlefern]

From kellymom.com:

Quote:

Self-Weaning during Pregnancy Reports seem to indicate that 26% of children self-wean during pregnancy1. If this figure sounds low to you, that may be due to some misinterpretations of the available data. Indeed, the study by Moscona is frequently misinterpreted as saying that 57% of children self-weaned during their mother's pregnancy. Although 31 out of 57 babies, or 57%, of the children who were nursing at the beginning of their mothers' pregnancies were no longer nursing by the end, the investigator specifically records that the weaning was baby-led in 15 of these 31 cases and mother-led in 16. Therefore the percentage of babies who self-weaned was 15 out of 57, or 26%. Similarly, Niles Newton's study found that 69% of babies were no longer nursing by the end of their mother's pregnancy, and this figure, too, is often incorrectly offered as a self-weaning-during-pregnancy statistic. However, Newton's 69% includes mother-led weaning, too.

 

[snowbird25ca]

I just wanted to send some hugs your way. My dd self weaned when she was around 23 months and I was about 13wks pregnant. My supply had been low since about 5 or 6 weeks and had pretty much dried up by then and she was only asking every few days. Then she got her 1st taste of colostrum and that was it, she made the yuckiest face and didn't want to latch again after that.

:

I think in part if a child weans due to supply dropping can vary depending on age of your babe. I got pregnant when dd was 13mos old and my supply tanked right away, but my dd just kept trying to nurse more & more & more to get my supply back up. Unfortunately I lost that baby, but I think if I hadn't that she probably would've kept right on nursing the entire pregnancy.

I felt really guilty about her weaning due to lack of milk instead of getting the idea all on her own and I still miss that time. Now we snuggle on the bed while she drinks her sippy of milk before bed, but it's not the same...

I also worry about sickness come this fall, but I'm due end of November and I plan to pump some milk for her & give it to her in a sippy. Hopefully she'll keep getting some antibodies through another winter that way anyways.

Lots of hugs to you mama and I hope your little one hangs on to nursing enough to get interested when colostrum shows up. Mine showed up quite early, so hopefully you'll see it soon too.

 

[cutic]

Thanks to all of you for your responses and especially thank you Trudy for your hugs

.

I think we may be able to make it through without weaning. She still nurses only at night but she does. I was originally planning to ask her not to nurse at night closer to the end of this pregnancy but obviously now I am not going to do this at all. As long as she keeps nursing I am going to be happy. SHe already knows that there will be milk when the new baby arrives and sounds entusiastic about it!

 

[mom2noah]

I got pregnant right around my DS's second birthday. Like you, my milk also dried up at around the same time. I would squeeze them and nothing would come out and DS wasn't swallowing while he nursed. He really cut back on nursing and would only nurse at naptime and evening bedtime. It was mildly umcomfortable for me but I kept it up because he needed it. I was doing don't offer, don't refuse and he always asked for it when it was time to sleep. I kept expecting him to self wean because it always heard that most babies do at around that mark but it never happened. When I was about 6 or 7 months pregnant my colostrum came in. DS continued to nurse at bedtime only now the nursing was no longer uncomforable because I was actually producing something. I nursed DS at 4 am right before I left to go to the hospital and deliver DD. I think that is why I had such a speedy labor. I stayed one night in the hospital and when I came home the next day DS asked to nurse. It felt very freaky to be nursing because it almost felt like I was nursing a giant compared to my baby girl. Then, when my milk came in it was like Christmas to him. He went from nursing once or twice a day to asking for milk ALL DAY LONG. I have been tandem nursing for three months and so far things are going pretty well. I do limit the length of time that DS can nurse for and I only do it when we are upstairs in bed. Quite often he will ask for it during the day but then decides that he doesn't want to leave his toys to go upstairs. I hope my story helps you in some way. You can do it, mama! Your DD is very lucky to have you.