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!

Hiya,

I feel I am in a dilemma - DD(no1) was 13months when she self weaned - I was 3 months preg with no 2 and I had reverted to colostrum, she didn't like it and that was that. DD2 then self weaned at 18mnths, I then discovered I was already pregs with no3. He is now 12 months and I am 9 weeks pregs with no 4. I did inadvertantly feed DD2 one night when she was nearly 3 because she was crying at night and I was half asleep.

I just have this feeling in my gut that he is not going to stop, he is biting with every feed which can now take up to an hour!!

I don't want to wean him off - but do I want to tandem?

How am I going to fit feeding both of them into a family of 6 where I am doing all the school runs and everything else?

Please someone tell me how to juggle this, I really need advice...

can't offer much advice i'm afraid as i'm only on number 2 now!
I wuld say though that dd feeding again in the day gives me a much needed break now i'm heavily pregnant and if you're feeding number 4 and number 3 wants to help themselves it shouldn't really take up any more time, just feed them at the same time! i'm sure someone with more children will be along with some better advice though.

Hi,
think I also posted much earlier in this thread! Anyway, am now 37 weeks pg, DS is 19 months. I had hoped he would self wean (never really thought he would though) during pregnancy, but he hasn't. He is feeding twice in 24 hours (bed time and first thing), and if he wakes in the night I will still use it to settle him.
The past 24 hours something has happened- it really hurts to feed him- just like in the very early days, the old toe curling latch and feed through gritted teeth routine. Just wondering if anyone has any experience of this? Milk doesn't appear to have changed yet. The thought of carrying on feeding him like this and then adding a newborn feeding for hours on end is a touch daunting! Equally I realise it is now too late to wean him before baby arrives! Help!

Hello kitkatqueen - maybe you have less milk than usual, and that's why the feeds are taking ages? Can you offer milk on demand and then when he's had a set time you tell yourself in advance, offer food/water (offering more breast if he's adamant that that's what he wants). Keeping him in a firm headlock - I mean it, but not in a way that will hurt him! - mighthelp avoid pulling and chewing on your nipple - keep him really pushed well onto the breast. I wouldn't be trying to wean him this young, just take the nursing as a chance for a sit down, like idbi says.

And hello jenniferturkington - are you a January antenatal thread lady, not a fab febber? Lots of us fab febbers are over heer on the tandem thread, in one of those statistical freaks. sorry it's hurting you. Maybe you are relactating - I remember from first pregnancy having those shooting lactation pains in the last weeks of pregnancy, so maybe your body is doing a bit of that? (there's a lovely analogy in the Adventures in tandem Nursing book about how with a newborn, your breasts are like Spring, with lots of little new shoots. And then by the time your baby is 6 months old and exclusively nrusing still, your breasts are like summer, in full leaf. And from then on, it is like autumn, with some of the leaves gradually falling away, until either you stop nursing entirely (winter) or you get pregnant, and your body lurches from autumn to Spring without having winter in the middle. So relactation is definitely possible).

You could always look at the discomfort now with a slightly longer term view - in something between a fortnight and 4 weeks from now, your milk is REALLY going to come in, but instead of getting engorged, you have a 19 month old all ready to relive you of the necessity of using cabbage leaves and whatever else we all get told to relieve the discomfort with

Hiya onwardandupward, I think you are propably spot on. I actually feel as though I have no milk at all. Firm headlock was excellent advice, much less biting today. He must be getting somthing because he is happy to feed for an hour at a time.

Also in your post to JT you just reminded me of my least favourite part of breastfeeding - The engorgment. I am now putting more ticks in the pro box for tandem feeding.

Thanks for the advice

KKQx

Can I join in? ONly newly pregnant but nipples already sore when feeding - does it just stay like this all the way through?

SPB - to answer your question: YES! (sorry). I have found it painful for the whole of pregnancy, it's not as bad now as it was at the beginning though. Welcome to the thread and congrats!

thanks! and thanks for answering my question

Stealth, Just to add another experience...I only had a few days of soreness at the 8 week mark and the rest of my pregnancy I was pain free

don't think I'm at 8 weeks yet! TBH it;'s not that bad, if it stays like this then fine, but I just don't want it to get worse
Thanks

Lucky you BE, i think the worst bit was around the 6 month mark where i had nothing left but now my milk seems to have come back and it's nowhere near as bad as it was but after a pain free 2 years (apart from the initial establishing bf nightmares) it's been a hard slog to keep going.
Only 1 more week until i'm tandem feeding, got my cs next monday[scared and excited emoticon]

Idon'tbelieveit, Yeah the end is within sight All the best with your C-section next week. I also found it very painful to establish breastfeeding with DC1 and this time around with DC2it was nearly perfectly straight forward. I hope you find it as easy and pain free

No pain for me in middle trimester. First and third harder going.

Am v impressed by all you happy tandem feeders.

Hi I'm bfing 14month old and nearly 12wks pg and I really, really want her to sleep all night as I am just totally shattered. I feel like giving up bfeeding at the moment as everyone has a funny smell which turns my stomach (even DD), she is feeding a LOT, and is especially keen at night, and I am just not enjoying the whole thing.
We usually sleep in separate rooms but last weekend we had a friend to stay and we slept in her room, and she was up non-stop from 1-5 wanting to suckle to sleep!
Shall I give up or carry on? (BTW she is probably still allergic to dairy- a good reason to carry on I suppose.....)

I let this thread slip off my recent posts.

Thank you stretch, I hope we get to talk to you more over the next 7 months and that everything goes well for you.

There is an example policy on the Baby Friendly website about co-sleeping and it is far from how I was treated, sounds the same as for you BabiesEverywhere.

I can?t believe your little one is five months it?s gone quickly. I?m sure you?re right that the behaviour is just about having a baby in the house most kids go through it. Tink though is being amazing! She?s even pushing on with the potty training, which my parents have hung back on because of the baby coming. I think she will be out of nappies quite quickly, although her constipation could be a problem with it. Her sleeping has been bad but I think it?s more to do with her snottiness. Her paediatrician wants an ENT surgeon to check her out to see if she needs her adenoids removing.

O&U, Jennifer is one of us, just doesn?t post a lot. I had those sorts of pains too, like everything sparking into life again.

Congrats Stealth and welcome to the group. I did find it all got better as I got further through, early on I felt like I had chomp bruises. I posted on a breastfeeding group on FB asking for advice, didn?t get back for a couple of days and found lots of ?congratulations you?re pregnant? posts and I had just found out while I was offline I was too!

To those who are already tandeming, did you find a difference in your milk right before the baby was born? The morning I went into labour I gave Tink a feed, she was on for ages with her eyes rolled and went milk-drunk, she?s not done that in a long time!

I?m not feeding Tink every day, it tends to be distraction mainly at the moment. Sîan is still difficult to latch and being so tiny (4lb 13oz yesterday) I have to put more effort into holding her, she?s still feeding a lot so I don?t have the spare time to feed Tink much. However, as she?s lived with my parents for the last three months she?s used to not having her feeds everyday. I think she?s suffering from my amazing letdown (half the problem with Sîan?s feeding is my letdown is so good she doesn?t need to latch, I leak enough to sustain her!) because she bites like mad when feeding

Hi Tbm&ff2,

Ouch!! I just really winced reading your post - it reminded me of dd1 (SHUDDER!!) My let down was way too fierce for her to cope with and I got chewed to bits too. Hope the biting doesn't last long!!

KKQ x

When she was about 10 months old she started biting and I would cry through feeds, I cut them right back and would stop when I couldn't handle anymore. About 14 months old we noticed that she bit the straw on her flask as it came too fast and started pinching it for her. Miracle cure, she stopped biting me too! I think it's something similar, only this time it's me not the straw that's too fast and I can't pinch myself to stop it (oh how I wish I could! I'm changing my clothes three times a day!)

I don't know whether this was advisable or not but I tried 1 thing which helped a bit with dd1.

I would let her feed until I got letdown and then I would take her off and let it flow into a sterile cup. Once it had slowed a bit and I could stop it easily with a flat hand I would put her back on to finish the feed. She had to work for it a bit more but I got bitten a lot less. I froze the milk I had saved for later/ emergency. at the time she was putting on about a pound a week so I don't think i shorted her any. Once she got a bit bigger the problem went away.

Don't know if this helps any?
KKQ x

i fed four for 2 weeks then other 3 stopped all at the same time, then eldest two started again so apart from short break after last baby was born have tandem fed for nearly 4 years

haven't had time to read whole thread but hope i can offer some support as i'm pretty experienced

Hther, Wow...how many nurselings !!!

Tell me more..how old were they (when you were nursing 4) and how often did they nurse and how did you cope/feel it went ?

Help!

Is it possible for my milk to be drying up?

I am 7 weeks pg, ds is 8 1/2 months and blw. My boobs feel deflated and I am no longer getting let-down when he feeds. Also, I used to be able to squirt milk out, but now it doesn't squirt, IYSWIM??

Does he need more milk, formula? He's not really taking in loads of food, but does pretty well.

Have no one else to ask as HV is a bit useless.

Buuuuuump!!!

Anyone??

have been keeping away as ds hadn't nursed since before xmas but he had a feed yesterday morning totally out of the blue so i guess i'm still preganant and nursing, lol!

be intersting to see what he does when baby arrives, i'm 39 weeks now so not long til we find out

stretch, all of what you describe happens even when you're not preg. as the baby gets older your boobs go quite soft and there's very little sensation of milk and it often seems like the baby isn't actually getting anything. it's just your body becoming efficient at feeding and really isn't anything to worry about, if he wasn't getting milk he'd let you know by unlatching and screaming in frustration, if he's contentedly nursing then all is well

when nursing 4, eldest was just over 4 1/2 years, second eldest 3 1/2, next one was 14 1/2 months, they didn't feed every day. but when pregnant with third, eldest fed 20 times at night, that was too much!

Hi,
I'm 8 weeks pregnant and have a 22 week old DS (Whoops!) I'm really keen to continue to breastfeed as long as possible but am really concerned about my milk supply reducing. Am feeling really guilty for letting him down.

Have been trying to do lots of research into breastfeeding whilst pregnant but can only seem to find information and anecdotes from (more responsible?!!)people who have continued breastfeeding much older babies (ie. those who are getting other forms of nourishment as well as BM)

Is it inevitable that my supply will reduce? Any tips? My DS has been slow to gain weight and I've been feeding him 3 hourly, day and night, for the last 2 months on the advice of my breastfeeding midwife. He finishes feeding very quickly and often fights and squirms during feeding. I'm concrned that my milk is not enough for him already.

Advice appreciated. Thanks