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!

tink, i think they just go through phases of early waking. dd will go for a few weeks waking at 5am every morning and then just suddenly go back to sleeping til 7 or8, i've never noticed that the brighness outside or what time she goes to bed makes any differance.

Sadly we haven't got room for another double bed, but as we've currently got a queen I thought we might manage to fit in a single. I thought I'd have baby, then me, then DD, then DH. i.e. DH will probably end up in the single - but he might get more sleep that way; DD is a very restless sleeper.

At the moment she won't accept him in lieu of me at night, which is really worrying me.

How about both of you turning up when she wakes in the night, and him offering water and then you offering milk as soon as that is rejected? And then gradually his presence will be just as expected and comforting as yours. The sooner we start, the more chance we all have of an easy transition!

Still co-sleeping wth DS who's three and showing no signs of realy wanting to go anywhere but he's recently found out about "high up beds" (cabin style ones)and thinks they look very exciting so we're going to get him one and put it next to our bed and see how we go. He's finally started sleeping through the night but I know that could go backwards at any point so for now I'm happier to have him in the same room with me.

Blooming ironic that after 3 years of DS waking me up he choses the point that I am waking up all by myself due to pregnancy-related discomforts to sleep like a log himself!

Thought I'd bump this back up.

We're currently playing "throw yourself out of the cot and get Mummy/Daddy to put you back in"! She's climbing out, crying in pain, coming to me for comfort, getting put back in and so on! I've given her 10ml of the antihistamine we were given and it can't have kicked in yet. [headbang]

Hey ladies. How's everyone doing?

38 weeks now, and dd still feeding at least 3 times a day and assuring me that there's still milk. There'll be lots more soon .

Hi, can I be another latecomer?
I'm 38 weeks, and still feeding dd who is 2.9, and I'm feeling a bit apprehensive about tandem feeding.
Dd still loves bf, and would do it more - it's usually just morning and night time now. I've talked to her a lot about the baby only being able to have milk, and not being able to enjoy all the things she can like cheese and chocolate, but she has suggested I give her milk, and she will provide milk for the baby!! so not sure that she's entirely keen on the sharing idea.

Hi splishsplosh, welcome to the group! It's good to have people here who are later in pregnancy or had their baby to give us "expert" advice! Your DD sounds really sweet, I bet she will love helping you look after the new baby showing him/her(?) how to do it and sharing her milk.

Thanks for the welcome Tinker. Dd seems quite excited about the baby (don't know if boy or girl, it's always kept its knees together!) so I'm hoping things will be OK, but she is a bit possessive of her mummy, so guess we'll see.
I never imagined bf for so long, or tandem feeding. Most people who heard I was still bf her suggested I should be giving up, whereas i thought it seemed worse to make her stop for the sake of dc2, as I thought it might make her feel a bit pushed out as she so loves it

Just what I needed!

I'm 7 weeks pregnant with a 23 month old DS. Everybody keeps on at me to give up feeding during my pregnancy but I so want to continue.

DS only feeds morning and evening but really enjoys it.

Great to see others out there tandem feeding. I have to say my nipples are really feeling sensitive right now. Does it get better?!

It has for me, I felt very bruised and had to try to discourage her sometimes. I'm still feeling like she is chomping sometimes but it's not as bad as it was.

I think there is the same gap between our children.

Oh yes llare - it was agony for me through the first trimester, but has got much better. Still a bit odd, but dd isn't the gentlest, and I figure it's good acclimatisation for having a newborn!

Welcome splish - good to have someone else at the same stage .

It hurt when dd latched on for ages, but has been OK for the last trimester.

CSWS - when's your baby due? Mine is 28th. It'll be good to have someone starting tandem feeding at the same time!

1st for me. Induction booked for 6th in case it doesn't happen naturally before, as I have gestational diabetes so am not supposed to go over.

Any sign of baby arriving yet splishsplosh?

found you again!

lost this thread for ages and kept forgetting to hunt it down, lol

ds is still feeding, sort of

there's definitely no milk in one side as he keeps stoppping to give out to me about it and i'm not convinced there is in the other either and he's only feeding every now and again so milk quotas not going to improve any time soon

he's happy though so i'm happy.

hope everyone else is getting on ok.

Hello all! I've just found out I'm pregnant and am still feeding DD who is 10 months old. I'm only 4 and a bit weeks so it's very early days, I had a chemical pregnancy last month so I'm trying not to get too excited yet. My new MN name has turned out to be strangely appropriate!

Am off to read the thread to date now...

After reading all that I'm now thinking I might not be able to hack feeding right through the pregnancy, maybe it's my hormonal state. I hope so. Poor DD is still really young and she needs her milk...

Am now wondering if I'm totally mad for planning DC2 so soon.

Can I join too? DD is 11 months and I'm 9 weeks pregnant, still bf, still intending to keep going. Had some bleeding a couple of weeks ago and actually bf was the one thing that cheered me up through it - lovely snuggly cuddles! All was fine though acc scan last week. Am struggling with tiredness and nausea but no sore nips surprisingly.

Dejavous, we are in similar position!

Indeed we are hopefully. It's good to know I'm not the only one wanting to do this with a child under one!

Congratulations!

dejavous.... i think it is the hormones as i felt like that in the early stages of both pregs i was feeding during and although dd and i never got past the year with ds i'm so glad i'm still doing it now i'm past the initial ookiness.

he feels so happy and secure knowing mama milk is still there for him and i think it will really help the transition, and now that the soreness has eased it's no skin off my nose to do it, in fact the morning feeds in bed are lovely, all snuggly and comforting for both of us.

Thanks pinktulips, I think I'm just having a lot of wobbles at the moment. You know the drill wondering if I'm mad to get pregnant and how I'll cope with the whole two under two thing...

I am really very pleased and it was planned, but I also feel awfully alone. I'd already forgotten how alone being pregnant makes me feel

That's what you get for moving to a foreign country I guess

Hello everyone - I can't believe I forgot to check back on this thread and now so many messages!

Hope everyone is doing swimmingly.

I am now 30 weeks and still feeding DS (2). It's still occasionally quite painful when he latches on but nothing like the early days when I had to grit my teeth.

I don't think there is really any milk left, partly because he sometimes says "milk gone" in a sad voice halfway through, and partly as he drinks masses out of his bedtime cup after he's finished bfing - but the bf now seems to be more about winding down and having cuddly time rather than getting nourishment.

How is everyone else getting along?

DeJaVous, Remember everyone has different experiences for nursing though pregnancy.

I was slightly sore around 8 weeks mark, my DD went down to one feed a day in the middle trimester (went up again) and apart from that she nursed well thoughout my pregnancy...plus I had no real pain etc and I kept my milk/colestrum thoughout, I didn't have a dry spell at all

Just see how things go before you make your mind up one way or the other. All the best

Cheers Babies, I think was having a big hormonal surge this morning. Lots of crying, angst and feeling weird. Has now passed and I'm a normal(ish) person again

I'm definitely going to persevere with BF, I feel that I owe it to DD to do my very best. Anyway, I don't want to stop! If it does get though I can imagine wishing she would self wean but TBH I can't see me trying to wean her.

Thanks for pointing me in the direction of this thread by the way