Question for any past/present tandem nursing mums

[BabiesEverywhere]

I am tandem nursing DD (2 years old) and DS (2 months old). Toddler is cutting back on solid food and I am still getting very engorged when I wake during the night and in the morning.

During the day I nurse both of them, seperately and together on demand. (well I sometimes distract the toddler with food)

More specifically ....
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1. DD seems to be cutting back on solid foods at meal time. Breakfast (which she rarely ate much at) has disappeared totally in favour of a full morning milk feed. Is this a problem ? Will she cut down the feeds again in time ? Or will I have to do something ?

I am in favour of letting her sort it out in her own time, as long as I am not creating problems. She has been so good and accepting of her new little brother and I honestly think tandem nursing has really helped her and hence would feel bad at limiting her unless it was necessary.
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1. Why am I still getting so painfully full at night ? I could literally feel bumps and tubes like things pulsing with milk in my breasts, as DS nursed at night. During the day things seem to settle down a bit and DS nurses a lot which helps.

Is this going to continue as I have two nurselings during the day and just one at night ? Will it sort itself out if I leave it ? No red bits, fever or blocked ducts, just really full to bursting. I have expressed a couple of nights but keep this down to the bare minimum as I don't want even more milk being made.

It did not help that we have all (DD, DS and I) being ill with a bad cold recently and they nursed even more than normal, so last night I had to sleep on my back as my breasts were so hard/full.

Thanks in advance

I only have expressed at night...a couple of nights in 2 months, when I couldn't stand the pressure in my breasts and only took off the milk I needed to feel better.

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sorry, I have never tried it, but I can imagine that if your toddler, with strong mature sucking suddenly starts taking more milk, your breast are going a wee bit in overdrive and they may not 'understand' (well mine are big enough to have brains ) that you do not need milk for lots of babies at night.

I wonder if it might create a problem in terms of the habit of breakfast disappearing (in terms of socialising) more than nutritional problems.

Hope you get a more expert response soon

Sorry, not a tandem nurser, but I know that pumping acts like an extra feed, so it actually causes the problem you are trying to get rid of. In my experience when my breasts got that full, they sorted themselves out within a couple of days by 'realising' there was too much milk at that time!

fourlittlefeet,
Totally agree, which is why I have only pumped maybe 2 or 3 times within the last 2 months. I hoped my milk supply would reduce naturally over time, but after 2 months I am still engorged nightly.

madmouse, Yep, thats what I thought. Maybe a reaction to having 2 x milk feeds during the day amd only one lot at night. Not much I can do about that though...I am NOT going to start waking up DD for night feeds...LOL

this just reminded me that my mum said she used to have to regularly hand express a little bit to make herself more comfortable as 'we babies' just didn't drink enough!!

Hi BE,

Hang in there, your supply will even out, I'd just express for comfort if need be, just the barest amount, you know the score!

Perhaps try to reduce your DD's feeds a little more in the day. I can't remember when I started distracting DD1 when she asked to nurse (every time DD2 started boobing!), it was around this time I think, I'd had enough of being a full-time milch-cow and DD1 had accepted DD2 pretty well etc, so I started distracting and eventually explained to DD1 that DD2 was just a tiny baby who couldn't eat chocolate cake etc, so only had milk, where as she is a big girl who has teeth and can eat all kinds of nice food, not just milk. She kinda got the jist of this and her food intake went back up again and the requests for boob began to fade a little. I do rememebr that during this time she did eat more sweets and crisps than I would usually allow and we did buy her stuff like "Fun To Learn" magazine and do lots of cuddling and jigsaw puzzles etc, andshewas allowed to watch far mor tv than normal too! Slowly it all leveled out and life returned to semi-sanity!

What was your supply like with DD? Did you have gallons of milk and get engorged with her too, or has it just been like this since you have been tandeming?

GreenMonkies, Yes, I had a load of milk with DD but it settled down after a few weeks. It makes sense that with double the nursing, my milk supply would take longer to calm down.

Just great to know that it will calm down one day soon Not that DH will be happy, he likes the Jordan-esk chest

Thanks Fourlittlefeet