Breastfeeding and pregnant

[Brightandbreezey]

Has anyone got any tips on how to continue breastfeeding whilst pregnant? Or success stories?
Only just found out I’m pregnant so early days. I have a 16 month old who feeds at night and once in the day before a nap.
After a rocky start I absolutely love breastfeeding and so does my DD. I would love to keep doing it but I’m so scared my milk will dry up.
Any advice or experience would be greatly appreciated!!

Bump - anyone??

Hello! My understanding is that around 16/17 weeks your milk will change/ dry up as I think it goes back to colostrum? However lots of babies continue to dry feed after this point, though some will self wean. Sorry I don't have any actual advice but hope that's helpful.
Also pregnant and breastfeeding! Very early but my plan is to survive the first trimester then gently wean in second....who knows how that will go!

Currently 16 weeks and bf’ing.
it’s painful- but there’s no end in sight for me lol
I know many women who have breastfed up to the 8th month and some who have gone beyond and tandem feeding. they just continued.
i love BF’ing my DS but im ready to stop now - just wish he would self wean because its not going to be nice when we stop.
I’m also exhausted so need my body back lol

Congratulations on your pregnancy. I am a tandem feeder. La Leche League and Kelly Mom have advice. It's very likely your milk supply will reduce or even dry up in the second trimester, and then return in the third. So for the period of a few weeks in between you have a few options - using stored expressed milk and dry nursing being the two that come to mind as I'm feeding right now.

If you stop nursing when your supply dips there is a chance your baby will not want to resume feeding again but it'll be on their terms if that's the case, which is the ideal if you believe in self weaning.

I vividly remember my baby signing to tell me my milk was gone one day and we both had lots of panicked tears. He continued to ask for milk so I dry nursed and similarly the day my milk returned (first as colostrum) I remember his excitement! We have been feeding for another two years after that!

I fed through two pregnancies and although the milk dried up at around 20 ish weeks each time it did nothing to deter the toddler and they continued to dry nurse throughout the pregnancy. As with the above poster their excitement once the new-milk came in was huge. I continued to tandem feed through the newborn period and beyond. Happy for you to pm me with any questions at any stage. Best of luck!

I fed my eldest all the way through my next pregnancy. I stopped at 8 months pregnant as I didn't fancy having two feeding at the same time but even that can be done. It was a bit awkward at the end with the bump in the way but you just adapt position. If feeding is going well currently it won't dry up unless you are not getting enough nutrition don't worry about it

I fed throughout my second pregnancy till the 8th month. I was told that my milk supply would continue to respond to feeding, so I may want to offer more to my toddler in the early months to ensure the supply. I was also warned that the taste or flavour of the milk changes in the second trimester and that causes some little ones to self wean as it changes. DS1 certainly cut down his feeds in the second trimester and so it tailed off nicely before the baby arrived. I didn't want to stop him once the new baby arrived, so would have considered feeding both but could see that would be difficult. . .

@sobermum23 thank you for your response! How far a long are you now and congratulations? How old is your LO? I wish I felt ready to start weaning but I just don’t. Good luck with your pregnancy and the weaning!
@Twinkletwinklelil thanks you! I hope the weaning goes ok for you! How old is your LO? I currently feel in a completely different place and hope my DD wants to continue but I know I may feel differently further down the line. Hope all goes well for you!
@Flittingaboutagain wow that’s amazing that you are tandem feeding! I really hope I can do that. I’m dreading it drying up! How old is your LO? I don’t think my baby could communicate it has all gone. Although she keeps biting me currently and I’m terrified that’s because it’s going/changing! But I know if could just be teething! Thanks for the resources too!
@Puddlelane123 that’s so great to hear! And really reassuring thank you! I think I will PM if that’s ok. I just feel very alone with this. A lot of people I know would have stopped feeding by now so I don’t have any advice!
@PurpleBugz that’s great to know. I don’t eat badly but I I know there could be some improvements. Do you know of anything that works in particular. I remember my midwife suggesting lots of stodgy food at the beginning to get things going.
@Notquitegrownup2 thanks for the reply! It’s nice that it failed off nicely for you and I hope it wasn’t to distressing for anyone! I’m so worried about how I’ll even get LO to sleep without boob!!!

I'm 38 weeks pregnant and have an almost 3 year old who BF to sleep, throughout the night and in the morning before I was pregnant. I found that I was able to carry on as normal with minimal discomfort until around 20 weeks. Then it started to get sensitive and I developed an aversion. Fortunately, this coincided with my supply drying up when I was around 25 weeks and from then on DS was a lot less interested. Now we cuddle to sleep and he very very occasionally tries to latch on for about 5 seconds before he remembers there's no milk. I think he's still quite interested though and I wonder what will happen when the baby is here. If he was younger I would definitely try to tandem feed but given that he's 3 I'm less keen to reintroduce! It's definitely possible if you can get through the aversions/discomfort!

Yes PM away @Brightandbreezey - happy to help in any way. It can definitely be done and for me it worked really well, although the poster above has reminded me about feeding aversion which kicked in at the same time as the milk dried up. It was toe-curling at times and almost primal - hard to describe but a sort of crawling creeping discomfort and desperation to get them off the boob. It must have been a hormonal element as I did find that once the milk re-appeared the aversion went. So don’t panic if you start feeling that - in my experience it passes.

@Brightandbreezey 19 months now 😅

@BananaHammock23 - thanks for sharing your story. How did you LO take it? It seems he was ok with the change. He’s a lot older then mine and worry so much about how it will affect her!! Plus how I will get her to sleep!!
@Puddlelane123 yes the aversion does not sound fun! I’m not looking forward to that at all!
@Twinkletwinklelil oh bless your LO!

@Brightandbreezey it was so gradual that it felt very natural. We didn't have a 'there's no milk' moment really which helped a lot! I had to power through aversion for a good month or so though while he realised there was no more and that was really challenging! I'm glad now it's happened