What will happen with my milk!?

[BlueeSpottyTiger]

So dd is 17m, still breastfeeding. I'm expecting baby #2 in March. DD will be 25.5 months when baby is born. If she Dosent stop by then (which i hope she will) what will happen with my milk? Will the newborn get any colostrum or will dd take it all!? Will my milk be fatty enough for a newborn?
I'm open to mix feeding but would prefer to avoid it.
Thanks x

I think your milk will change at some point in the pregnancy to cater for the newborn, and often the older child will wean as they don't like the change etc. I haven't got first hand experience though. You might get better replies in the infant feeding topic or try la leche league website they have info on pretty much everything breastfeeding related.

Look up tandem feeding, that'd what it's called to feed a toddler and newborn at once.

I haven't done it myself but there is apparently a good book by the la leche league. You'll get colostrum again and the toddler feeding can be quite good for keeping your supply going with a new one. On the other hand you can end up feeling very touched out with two of them, so some women prefer to wean during pregnancy.

I had a couple of months less between mine and I found my first was weaned already anyway - any milk was "extra" so I just gave him cows milk. To me the benefits to the older child counteract the negatives to you - pregnancy takes it out of you , make it as easy as possible.

Your milk changes depending on which infant is nursing so your body recognises who is feeding and makes different milk. Your toddler will still get colostrum but it's impossible for her to take it all, the baby will get what he/she needs.

Some babies do self wean during pregnancy but I think it's only about 25%, often mum's encourage weaning as they don't want to tandem nurse.

There are a couple of really good tandem feeding groups on Facebook with lots of pregnant mums who are breastfeeding and lots tandem nursing.

I tandem fed with a similar age gap to you. I found it quite helpful as the toddler didn't feel pushed out at all by the baby and I never felt I had to give the toddler less attention while feeding the baby as could feed toddler too. It was lovely having them hold hands when feeding and the toddler stroke baby's head, etc. Had no jealousy issues or anything.

My toddler did completely stop eating food when baby was born (which is quite common but I wish I had known about it!) and put on massive amounts of weight! It didn't last long though and then went back to eating food normally.

Am happy to answer any other questions you've got.
There's some good info on Kelly mom too about nursing in pregnancy and tandem nursing.

My daughter was 16 months when I got pregnant with DC2. She continued breastfeeding until 19 months and then all of a sudden, just stopped so I presume either my milk was drying up or it tasted different. I was glad she stopped as I had nursing aversion. She still has a bit of a fascination with my boobs, likes twiddling my nipples and occasionally tries to latch but has forgotten how.

I'm 22 weeks with my third, my daughter is 16 months. I was still breastfeeding her a couple of times a day until recently. It's so strange but all of a sudden in June she just lost interest. I wondered whether it was pregnancy changes to my milk or just natural self weaning.

Who knows ?!

Thanks for your advice ladies 😘 I'll have a Look at those sites!
And little thanks! I'll let you know if i think of anything else.

I hope she chooses to stop herself as i dont want to be breastfeeding a growing child lol but i do want it to be her choice (within reason). I couldn't imagine have two babies on at once. They'll have to take turns 🤗

Congrats on your pregnancy. Hopefully your DD chooses to stop of her own accord. I'm 21 weeks pregnant and DS is finally down to a quick feed before bed at 30 months. We started gently working towards weaning at around 20 months, but it's only really been since I was pregnant that he's properly lost interest. Like you I couldn't imagine feeding 2.

When I got pregnant, I hoped my toddler would wean, I didn't know anyone who had tandem fed and couldn't imagine feeding two! I was really tempted to encourage weaning but for various reasons carried on.

I was so glad of being able to breastfeed the toddler though when the baby came. I'd forgotten how much feeding a newborn ties you to the couch and was glad I wasn't having to entertain the toddler/keep getting up getting drinks,etc.
I think mum's often feel guilty on the older ones when the baby arrives so knowing I was able to breastfeed the toddler and they weren't pushed out by the baby helped.

I also found it was a massive help in pregnancy, meant an easy way to deal with tantrums, upset etc when I didn't have much energy.

If she doesn't wean, it will be fine, there are lots of positives. Good luck with your pregnancy.

Yeah i guess i would feel guilty to be feeding a new baby when its something my dd has enjoyed so much.
I'll have to roll with it and see what happens.. thanks so much little xx

My dd had her last bf at 22 months, the day before i had my ds. When i got out of hospital nearly a week later, due to complications, first thing my dd tried was to bf. She said it was disgusting. easiest weaning ever.

Waiting for the arrival of DC2 any day now. My experience so far:

DC1 (now 2.5) breastfed A LOT, up to about 2 months of pregnancy. Then I started to get quite painful contractions if they fed for more than about 15 minutes. I also developed a real aversion to them feeding, it felt very painful and I just didn't enjoy it. So I stopped feeding for more than a few minutes and eventually it petered out till they stopped feeding at all.

My milk had dried up by about 4 months, after which point they stopped being interested in trying to latch on. They still are very affectionate towards my boobs though, I think the memory is still there of how much they enjoyed it, but they happily tell me about how "their" baby is going to drink the milk because they won't be able to eat anything else. We will see how this actually transpires when the baby is here!