Has anyone continued breastfeeding through pregnancy?

[stottiecake]

I have just started reading 'Adventures in Tandem Feeding' and am starting to worry about how painful breastfeeding might be.
I'm not even pregnant but we are going to start ttc this month.
Ds (20 mo)loves bfing and has cmp allergy so am not considering weaning him. Am almost 37 so don't want to leave it a year or 2 until he weans naturally.
But I am a bit worried about returning to the kind of painful feeds I experienced in the first few months of feeding ds.

Is it so so bad?

TIA

I fed all through my last pregnancy,for similar reasons to you,(I was 42-43 and so I didn't want to leave it longer to try and conceive,and I didn't want to wean my then 18m old dd1).It was fine actually.DD1 did seem to feed more early on in the pregnancy,so I think my supply may have dipped,and at the very end it started to hurt but I think that was more because she had dropped down to one feed a day then,and I think it hurt as she was having to suck quite strongly to get much out.She decided to stop just before I had the baby (she was 2 and quarter then).The only thing I noticed really is that I was very tired,but I think that may have been unrelated,impossible to tell,and I'm so glad I had those extra months of bf DD1.

I had a couple of weeks of mildly uncomfortable breastfeeding at about 6-8 weeks but really nothing like the first few weeks when she was born. And now it doesn't feel any different. I think the big thing for me is that BF has always made me feel lovely & snoozy-relaxed. Add this feeling to early pregnancy tiredness and it becomes more like narcolepsy. I've found that to be much more troublesome!
HTH

I fed DD all the way through my pregnancy with DS3 and tbh i didn't find it especially painful. There were a couple of weeks when i think my supply dropped a little and DD seemed to want constant feeding which was tough, especially at night, but we rode through it.

I had intended to tandem feed DD and DS3, but DD had other ideas - she self weaned as soon as she saw DS3 feeding from me - i offered her bf, and she literally pushed me away, saying 'no'. She was 20 months when he was born. She hasn't fed from me since.

sorry, but yes I did find it painful and awkward after about 20 weeks, and it continued till after DD was born. I also found tandem feeding in the first few months awful (as in literally feeding both together).
But I am now feeding a 3y3m and an 11 month old so it can't have been that bad! I would definitely do it again, not that I am having a third :o

Oh SPB for a minute there i read that as 'NOW i am having a third...'

I fed throughout my pg but didn't find it painful at all.

Everything else about my pregnancy was painful, just not the feeding

Thanks so much!
Thats very reassuring. I guess I won't know 'til it happens but was panicking slightly at the thought of pain especially as ds still feeds so much (but not in the night anymore thank God!)
The experiences in the book seem to be about PAIN and even describes the different kinds of pain and then how annoying you may bfing in general.
It's good to know it won't neccessarily be as bad as all that!

stealthpolarbear I have a 3y3m old too!

Do we have identical ages then, I can't quite tell from your earlier post...end of April 07 and mid September 09?

I nursed DS2 throughout DD's pregnancy. Was uncomfprtable and downright painful at times but I would do things like count to 10 and he would come off if it got too bad.

i fed through at least part of two pregnancies - had much less pain in nipples than in my first pregnancy (with all the hormones making them grow to ridiculous size)! i felt feeding kept my PG hormones in check.

i had no pain when feeding during pg. i think it is an individual thing and you don't know until you try!

good luck ttc x

A little bit painful when 19 mo DS latches on (am 10 wks pg) but nothing like initial newborn bfing. But like jetli, I do feel a lot more tired this time around, like I'm under sedation or something! I hope it passes soon and I start feeling normal. Am only feeding last thing at night and early am, but hope to keep this up, it would be lovely to feed them both.

Good luck with ttc.

No pain - it was fine. Apart from the logistics of positioning wriggly feeding baby around a ludicrously huge bump. I don't know if it was coincidence or if there was a drop in supply, but DS1 just stopped wanting to be BF one day when I was 8 1/2 months with DS2 and he was almost 13 months. I was feeding him once a day by then. He had a marathon feed, probably twice as long as usual and then just never wanted to again. I like to think that the huge feed was his farewell to the BFing as opposed to him trying to get more and then just giving up.

I fed throughout pg and yes it was painful. Sorry! I think it totally depends and is just luck of the draw.

There were periods when it was fine and periods when it was very painful and I had to count to ten and then say "that's enough", but it was never bad enough to make me want to forcibly wean him.

You may also find that your milk declines, I was almost dry in the middle trimester though it did return a little towards the end. Again, this seems to vary from person to person, but be prepared that your DS may need other calcium sources if you're not giving him dairy also.

All in all though it was completely fine, and the extra sofa time was more than worth the hassle and discomfort