Pregnant and Nursing Support Thread

[TinkerBellesMum]

I thought I'd start up a support group, for those of us pregnant, with an older nursling. If you are pregnant at the moment or tandeming or have done in the past and want to add your support, please post!

I'm 12 weeks pregnant and have a 2 and a week year old. One of the first things I noticed about being pregnant was my nipples felt bruised like she'd bitten me. 8 weeks later not much has changed and I'm still spending every feed saying "gentle please".

Someone please tell me it gets easier!

I'm also starting to feel quite full and hard.

I keep getting told by my family I'll have problems tandem feeding "and how many mothers do you know who have done it?" My dad was grilling me the other day about tandeming and when I'll stop Tink nursing. He's a radiographer. I made him agree with me "Well, you know yourself that when the adult teeth come through because they're in a totally different order to the milk teeth the jaw changes shape" "Yes and around the same time the soft spot in the jaw fuses" "That change makes it impossible for them to continue nursing, that's why they got called milk teeth" lol how could he argue when he'd just backed my argument up!

Oh no, just caught up wth the news about Tink Hope everything goes well.

Just a quick update, still tandem nursing here. DD still nursing a lot and reducing her solid intake, I am tryin to encourage her to eat more, without upsetting her as she has been so good about getting a new sibling.

Ooops lost this thread for a while...

Tink - I missed the whole scary episode. Sorry. How are things going now?

Babies - I'm glad to hear it's still going well!

I went for my first midwife appointment this morning, she didn't turn a hair when I mentioned I was still BF. Which is nice!

BF is still going well, I had a couple of weeks of over sensitive nipples, but it's calming down again now (9+3). DD seems to be nursing about as much as always but my let down seems a bit slower / more difficult to get than it was.

Ah, probably should have mentioned the name change, I was DeJaVous...

I thought I should dig this thread out, sorry I've not updated before. I'm still pregnant(YAY!) had another scare this week when I had tightenings every 15 minutes for 3-4 hours. They kept me in from some stupid am till the evening to monitor me and nothing much happened so they let me go.

I'm still nursing Tink when I see her, driving me mad not being with her all the time but I can't see an alternative, what would we have done with her either time I went in in the middle of the night? In a way I'm glad we're not together all the time because I get quite tight when I'm feeding her and I'd be worried if that was happening every day and sometimes several times. They said I can continue as long as it doesn't cause me to have contractions, so as they stop when she does and it's not all the time I'm happy that I'm not causing harm to her.

I'm 3 weeks off my record this weekend so not expecting to go much longer, FiFi (Tink's name for the baby) has had a full course of steroids so when she comes they will be happy to let her and won't try to stop it.

This might sound awful but in a way I wish she would hurry up and come, I feel so jumpy that I wish it was all over. I think in a way I can cope with the more known of having a baby here. I'm not wishing prematurity on her, honest, I'm just wishing it was a few weeks further on.

A quick hello from me too. Tandem nursing going ok-ish. Dd very obsessed by boo-boo still, but does accept to some extent that ds needs to nurse too. Her solids intake has reduced as a result of the extra milk, but I'm hoping that it will be a short lived phase (4 weeks so far).

Unfortunately I've had to give up eating dairy again, as ds has turned out to be milk intolerant, just like dd used to be.

Glad to hear that you're still pregnant TBM. What is it with you B'ham lot though? EPPM (who I understand you met recently) was having (mild) contractions the other night too!

CSWC, We are approaching 3 months of tandem nursing and toddler DD is still nursing loads and eating reduced solids.

TBM, Glad to hear your still pregnant

It's this couple of months, we all seem to want to be having babies (maybe we want them out before Christmas) which is why I had to be sent up to Liverpool.

Was rather odd to have someone come up to you in an antenatal class and say "You're TinkerBellesMum, aren't you?" She actually knows Mum and Tink's godmother, went to the same breastfeeding group last time... It's a small world!

I'm having contractions hourly at the moment and Tink seems to know as she's asking to nurse right when they come up! (oh, please! Must I?? lol)

My HV just asked how we're going to cope when the baby comes because Tink won't have any milk!

I said "I'm going to tandem" with a straight face!

Thought I would join in. I am 12 weeks pregnant & currently tandem feeding a 1 year old & a 2 year old! Both feeding lots & neither showing any signs of cutting down or stopping!
MW asked how old DD was when I stopped breastfeeding, told her still was feeding them both & planned to carry on & see what happens! She nearly fell on the floor!

lol CheeseMonster! I'd love to be in a position to say that Welcome to the group anyway. How are you finding the pregnant and nursing part? Is it different from last time?

TBM- finding it so much more sore this time! Hardly noticed 1st pregnancy, possibly because ds was so young but this time I knew I was pregnant before testing because I had become so sore. Also the dreaded spd had flared up
Now I have reached 12 weeks it is becoming less sore, or I am more used to it, not sure which.
Tip for anyone who could bear it & is having a slow labour- breastfeed. It really speed up my contractions & all of a sudden I was fully dilated! The midwife couldnt believe I was going to feed while in labour but when I told her it would settle me as I knew ds needs where met & then could concentrate on giving birth she was OK!
However I am so hungry, when not feeling sick this time! Didnt have sickness last time & was sure that was to do with the breastfeeding but now obviously not so!

Wow cheesemonster !!! I wonder if it is still 'tandem' if you are nursing three

I am tandem nursing 2.3 year old DD and 3 month old DS, however they both nurse enough that a potental third child would starve waiting for a breast to come free

All the best and I'll be very interested to hear how things go for you.

BTW How often do your 1 and 2 year old nurse at the moment ? I ask, as my toddler has increased her feeds since the baby has been here and I am wondering if she will reduce on her own.

Hi babies. My 2 yr old nursed more frequently when dd was born, loved all the milk! He put on lots of weight too but has since lost that.
Not sure how I am going to fit another one in either, although I was producing so much milk after dd birth that I was giving lots away to the bank etc. Thought this was a really good thing to do but then did eventually have to give up as the amount of milk my body was making was just plain silly! I was knackered & ate all day!
My 1 & 2 yr old still nurse what seems like all the time, 1 yhear old still on demand, several times, dont bother counting! 2 year old at least 4-5 times. I have had a quite day if he only feeds 3 times!
How have you found the tandem nursing?

I've just surprised people at the NCT antenatal breastfeeding class by saying I'm tandeming (took the trainer to explain it) and that my daughter is 28 months! Should have heard them though, the idea of breastfeeding to 6 weeks "gasp that's a long time!" 6 months and 2 years, I'm sure you can imagine the !

I was shocked that a whole NCT class was so opposed to breastfeeding. I kinda thought that people who go on them are more open than that.

I've been on crutches for about 6 weeks due to PGP (I have an old injury and pregnancy makes it worse). I got pleasant surprise comments when I went into triage one night when my back seized up, the doctor gave me tips for nursing with a bad back.

Just spotted this thread, although I think I may have posted way back.

DS is 2 years old and breastfeeding and I am 14 weeks pregnant. I am getting so, so much grief now that I am pregnant and DS is 2. Even DH, previously supportive, is making noises about maybe it may be time to give up. I am nodding vaguely in the interest of an easy life, but I am going to go with the flow and wait for DS to make the final decision.

He is currently feeding a lot in the morning, and only sometimes in the evening. He does of course like a feed if he wakes up in the night, although this happens rarely. It's great to have a support thread as I think people in RL secretly think I'm bit of a freak, although they rarely say anything to my face.

TBM- It was the NCT who referred me to LLL when I was pregnant & still feeding ds! They said I would find mother who tandem fed their & they had more experience & info. I suppose it all depends on where the groups are & the mums who go. She was right though. The local LLL group had 9 core members, 7 who where/had tandem fed!

I'll probably look up my local LLL, I want to get more involved with things like LLL and NCT because I wasn't last time (didn't do any classes because I had a premature baby) and missed out on a lot. I want to train to be a BFC and a Doula (not sure if I will have time to do both, but we'll see). The way I see it I've been through some really hard times with pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding, but because of that I had a lot of really good help, sadly women who have a really good experience of pregnancy and birth are often over looked when it comes to breastfeeding so I want to use my experiences to help women who are missed out.

Hi all, I'm 7weeks pregnant, still bf my daughter who's 21 months. Struggling with a really low milk supply at the moment, probably linked to the fact I'm knackered!

Anyway, hope this thread is still active, looking forward to sharing experiences

I had my 16 week check up and it was all standard the mdwife told me to give up BFing again grrrr I said why I'm only feeding once a day and she said That when the new baby came if I was feeding a toodler the new baby might not thrive and then I would have trouble weaning her. I have faith that my one feed a day will not disturb my supply!!! Maybe DD will self wean by then but I don't se any rush to stop her when she's only having it once a day. She not even a year year!!
I get so annoyed its like they aren't educated on BF at all!!!!!!

How annoying febes - my ds has managed to go from around 50th centile to above 75th in 5 weeks whilst I tandem feed, so tell your mw to shove that in her 'breastfeeding for numpties' textbook!

febes, how do they think women successfully exclusively feed twins and more? [headbang] You will do just fine, your body will adapt to the demand.

Welcome ghostbuster and congratulations on the pregnancy. The early days of pregnancy can be a little difficult until your body adjusts, I found by the second trimester things had settled down quite a bit.

CSWS, how are things going for you?

Glad to hear you are still here TBMs is LO still on the inside??
I had no problem with feeding last time (despite no NHS support at all luckily my mum is a midwife and stayed with me for the first 2 weeks) I leaked everywhere for 6 months so clearly my supply was fine.

Yes, I'm still pregnant! 29+2 now, so doing really well, I'm hoping for a number starting with 3 so if I can get past Sunday I will be really happy!

They're starting to monitor me because of the notch (5 weeks after finding it!) and the baby is still less than 10th %ile, so there's a possibility they won't want her to go the whole way anyway. Going to be a competition between the baby and the hospital to see who holds out the longest!

Hello, just popped in to say dd2 is now 8 weeks. I'm still feeding dd1 (2+10) just first and last thing, though she sometimes asks for it at other times.

I haven't mastered boith at the same time - find it really uncomfortable and stressful so usually keep swapping them about.

Hv did suggest stopping feeding dd1 for some reason or other - I think because dd2 was only just on birth weight at 10 days.

Glad everyone's doing ok.