Breastfeeding and toddlers!

[momofnearly2]

I Bf my Ds for 6 months and gave up when the pressure to fill him up with Formula, he's still hungry got the better of me. (should've stood my ground)

Anyway Ds will be 18 months when new baby is here and I am determined to BF again till at least a year.

I know the first 4 weeks with Ds I was pretty much stuck to the sofa letting him feed when he wanted to help establish the milk supply.

I'm expecting to do that this time too, but how? I had no other distractions with Ds, now I'm going to have a toddler to see to as well.

Unfortunately Dp's job means he's not entitled to Paternity leave meaning he gets arounf 2 day's off and my mom will be living 300 miles away so can't even get anyone round to keep him company.

I suppose it'll all just fall into place when newborn arrives but I'm stressing out about it now!

I don't know the answer from experience but I plan to buy a nice, soft sling when I have dc2 - one that I can feed in while I entertain dd. My friend swears by a Moby wrap for her newborn and she had her ds in in permanently.

I had some success feeding dd in a Beco Butterfly II but I am not sure I could feed a newborn in one.

How about baby groups? Can you take your ds and let him play for an hour or so while you sit and cuddle/feed your new baby?

Do you have any friends that he knows and is happy with who can take him to the park for an hour?

I understand you stressing out though, I would be exactly the same.

I hope someone comes along with some better tips soon!

Good luck!

Box of special toys that only come out whilst you're feeding.

Read to him whilst you are feeding.

Go to lots of toddler groups.

I second the sling suggestion. I only have the one DD at the moment but she was in a sling a lot when she was tiny so I could have both hands free to do useful things like go on the internet housework. I have a ring sling, took me a few goes to get the hang but I still use it all the time now and she's 15 mo.

Agree with other suggestions. also, I let DD watch DVDs/ beebies while I fed.

FWIW I didn't find this with DC2 (DD). Fed DS on the sofa for hours, remember not being able to move. With DD the feeds were much shorter and also I could move around! Agree with the others, TV, books, set up train track and help whizz them round.

Something to remember when you are feeling guilty about DS being neglected due to feeding - a few weeks of extra tv is not going to affect him for the rest of his life, whereas BF your new baby is going to. That's how I reasoned it anyway!

I had a Moby sling for DS2 and it was a godsend. Though in truth he was an efficient feeder and never fed more than 5-10 minutes, causing me great anxiety but actually making life quite easy. Relatively speaking, that is

Cbeebies.

Sorry it's not very highbrow or impressive, but it does the trick IME.