Breastfeeding while pregnant

[CountBapula]

My main question is, does it hurt?

DS is 20 mo and shows no signs of slowing down on the bf front (my last day at home with him he fed about eight times!). Also, I still bf to sleep every bedtime and at naptime if I'm around, though he goes to sleep OK for DH and for his CM if I'm not. Thankfully he finally stopped feeding at night a month or two ago.

We're thinking about TTC DC2 soonish - maybe around DS's second birthday. I'd always thought DS would have weaned by then but starting to think that's unlikely.

Thing is, I had very sensitive breasts and nipples when pg before so can't imagine feeding if I get pg again.

If you fed during pregnancy, did you find it uncomfortable? And did your child wean when your milk changed back to colostrum? (I don't really want to tandem feed, although again I might not have much choice in the matter )

Bump

It varies- sorry if you wanted a definite answer

My personal experience was that BF during pregnancy was fine, despite getting sore nipples during my first pregnancy. All pregnancies are different, so you never know.

However, some children self-wean during pregnancy and sometimes mothers do find it too uncomfortable to continue so that's something to bear in mind if you do want to continue BF.

Your DS sounds totally normal, 20 months would be quite young to self-wean. :)

Thanks both. Yes, 20 months would be young to self-wean, but he seems more keen on it than ever - he was only having one or two feeds at a year old, and now he's always after 'booboo'

Interesting to hear the sore nips thing varies between pregnancies. Fingers crossed that'll be the case for us.

Joyful that does sound awful. Hormones must do strange things.

Tbh I don't think I have the heart to actively wean him before we start TTC so I guess it'll be a case of 'suck it and see' (fnar) but good to hear others' experiences.

Hiya, I'm 30 weeks and DS (20 months) self weaned 2 weeks ago. I wasn't really expecting him too (although hoping!) but he gradually lost interest as my milk stopped. I think he 'dry fed' for quite a while but in the end it was too much effort for him.
I probably felt a bit more sensitive at the beginning but it was nothing too dramatic.
Good luck!

I've bf through 3 pg (well I'm bfing at 26w at the mo). Two of those pg have been tandem nursing - I nursed DD1 & DD2 through DD3's pg until 8m when DD1 self-weaned at 3y 6m (not to do with pg as she lost the ability to latch due to her jaw changing to accommodate her 1st adult molars) and am nursing DD2 & DD3 - DD2 is 4y 6m and DD3 is 2y 7m.

Personally I have found I get tender nipples during the first trimester and my milk stops at week 14 (this time round it was wk 12!) and then I get colostrum between wk 24-26 though I have yet to see any colostrum this time but I suspect it's because I am feeding so infrequently due to DD2 & DD3's ages (DD2 nurses between 1 a week and 1 every 3 weeks and DD3 nurses between 3 times a day to every other day). This is nothing compared to how much I was feeding when I got pg with DD3 as it was about 20 times a day between DD1 & DD2!

I also found I had nursing aversions (skin crawling and generally ansty while bfing) so I used to place limits on the nursing - it was particularly bad when I was pg with DD2 so I used to limit DD1 to the duration of 3 books or if it was really really bad to just the Very Hungry Caterpillar or even to the count of 10 - this peaked in the 2nd trimester but eased off when my colostrum came in. It didn't lead to her weaning either as she carried on for another 2 years and most of another pg.

There's lots of good info in the Kellymom.com bfing when pg section and the books 'Adventures in Tandem Nursing' and 'Mothering your Nursing Toddler' also have info on pg & bfing and tandem nursing.

Thanks everyone. TruthSweet, I'm in awe! Great tip about timing feeds - I'll keep that one in my back pocket.

Only thing to do now is actually go for it...

I'm currently 40+4 with DC2 and still nursing DS. It hurts now, but didn't to begin with. I cut his feeds down to once or twice a day at 24 months though, as I was getting sick of demand feeding! It hurt from about 34 weeks for me iirc. I unlatch him when I have had enough.

Oh wow, Kveta! All the best with DC2 - not long now!

I'm 30 weeks and dd is nearly 1. It was painful / uncomfortable for the first month or so, and has been fine ever since. We still do one bf together in the morning, and I assume there is still milk as she keeps going for a decent length of time (she's obviously too little to talk!)

Not sure how my supply would have held out as I've been dropping feeds, replacing them with formula, for at least a couple of months. Personally I want her to forget about breastfeeding before her sister comes. If that's possible!

The sore nips at the start were totally bearable - go for it!

I carried on nursing DD whilst pregnant with my twin boys until she was 21 months. I'm not sure if it was her or me, or what, but I was only nursing her in the mornings and then I got a bit of the aversion thing and she sort of lost interest and we found we could distract her by just getting up for breakfast rather than lounging in bed.

However, now the boys are here (DD now 2.4yrs) she wants to have the occasional suck. She's kind of forgotten how, but she still likes the cuddle and i know another Mum who's DD started nursing again once the baby was born...

Hadn't even thought about him starting again once potential DC2 comes!