TTC/Pregnancy while Breastfeeding and Tandem Nursing: Information and Support

[Celesse]

Thanks Wobbles for making us a sticky!!!!!!!

Any questions about TTC while Breastfeeding? Breastfeeding while Pregnant? Tandem Nursing? This is the place!!!!!

Sources:

Nursing During Pregnancy and Tandem Nursing - Good ol' Kelly Mom! Great information on fertility while breastfeeding as well as tandem nursing diet options, to make sure you make enough milk for both little ones! There's also a good FAQ you can print out.

Adventures in Tandem Nursing: Breastfeeding During Pregnancy and Beyond! - Published by LLL, I've found it on Amazon.co.uk and also here. This book always gets recommended to anyone looking to tandem nurse . I'll be getting a copy soon so hopefully I can post some good info soon!

How Milk Changes during Pregnancy and what to expect from your nursling - A specific section on KellyMom about this. I found it very informative and reassuring.

Breastfeeding Agitation - An adaptation from Adventures in Tandem Nursing about how you might experience some agitation during pregnancy and after while nursing.

A New Look at the Safety of Breastfeeding During Pregnancy - What to expect when nursing during pregnancy. Hopefully will alleviate some fears about breastfeeding during pregnancy.

Ladies that can offer support:

cutie4evr01: Nursed during my first trimester, lost supply so daughter lost interest. Excess of milk so her toddler drinks 15-20oz of EBM a day if anyone has questions about that also.

celesse: Currently feeding my 22 month old along with an almost 5 week old. Expressing for the baby as due to both of us being poorly over the first 4 weeks he is weaning off top ups.

TigerLady: Cycles returned 14 weeks PP with DS. Fell pg with DD on third cycle when DS was 5 months old. Nursed frequently all through pg -- dealt with pain, thrush, fatigue, BF agitation, slow let down. DD born when DS was 13 months old. Have tandem nursed DS and DD since (both now toddlers).

Tacey: Currently nursing while pregnant. Dry nursing for 16 weeks. Breastfeeding aversion in first trimester.

 

[span]

Oooh I might hang out in here for a bit! We're keen to have 2 close in age so are kind of TTC but AF hasn't returned yet so might take a while.
Meg has pretty much STTN since about 2 months and is already down to 3 feeds a day most days but still nothing.
I started using daily OPK's at the start of the month to see if anything was happening and I got a positive a couple of weeks ago (but neg hpt). I also had spotting a week ago so hopefully the is lurking around the corner.

I've read that agnus castus and vit B6 can both be useful, especially as there might be luteal phase issues while still BFing, but I'm holding off for now.

 

[Ozzieshunni]

We're TTC as well My AF came back two months ago and has been pretty regular. Best of luck! I'll work on getting the front page up to date in the coming days.

 

[span]

Oooh I hope you don't have to wait long for your BFP then! I never thought I'd want to see AF so much!

 

[Ozzieshunni]

A handful of people think I'm nuts for TTC.

 

[cutie4evr01]

I nursed during my first trimester, but sadly lost my supply so my daughter lost interest. I am happy to provide support/answer questions as best I can, but we never made it to tandem nursing. However, I do now have an excess of milk so my toddler drinks 15-20oz of EBM a day if anyone has questions about that also.

 

[Ozzieshunni]

I nursed during my first trimester, but sadly lost my supply so my daughter lost interest. I am happy to provide support/answer questions as best I can, but we never made it to tandem nursing. However, I do now have an excess of milk so my toddler drinks 15-20oz of EBM a day if anyone has questions about that also.

Thanks hun! I'll make sure to add you to the front page

 

[Celesse]

Hi ladies.

I'm currently feeding my 22 month old along side my almost 5 week old. I'm also expressing for the baby as due to both of us being poorly over the first 4 weeks he is weaning off top ups.

 

[Tacey]

Ooh, I'm glad this is up and running. Thanks for getting it going Ozzieshunni!

I was very broody when Alice was still quite small, and we started NTNP even though my cycles hadn't returned. AF arrived at 19 months, but I had a luteal phase defect until Alice was 2 (I had a BFP followed swiftly by a period during that time )

Nursing so far has been mixed. In the first trimester I had intense breastfeeding aversion, and some pain and decided to night wean. I've also cut down to about 4 feeds a day. I have been dry nursing since about 16 weeks. Alice is still going strong though, so I'm hopeful we'll manage to tandem nurse.

Resources I've found incredibly helpful so far have been Adventures in Tandem Nursing, and the nursing in pregnancy section of Kellymom here.

 

[Ozzieshunni]

Thanks hun! I'll get that stuff added during Alex's nap tomorrow.

 

[amberdawn723]

I'd love to see what information you gather for this. I am breastfeeding my 10 month old DD (she's just barely dabbling in baby foods/solids) and I'm going to start TTC as soon as AF comes. I'm on my 2nd cycle PP and I'm not sure if I'm ovulating or what (just started temping again a few days ago). I'd love to hear any info about how breastfeeding affects ovulation. Thanks ladies!

 

[JZW]

Thanks for starting this. We have been NTNP since last month as we want our babies close in age. LO has been STTN since around 2months. AF hasn't returned yet and I am desperately hoping it makes an appearance soon so that we can start TTC

 

[Ozzieshunni]

bumping up! Thanks to all who volunteered yesterday to provide support

 

[mrs_park]

Hi ladies!

We plan to TTC # 2 later this year and I would love to keep nursing throughout pregnancy and attemp tandem nursing.

AF still hasn't returned despite LO feeding less and less. I'm starting to think that AF may not return until I fully wean. If that's the case, I don't know what I'll do. I want another baby and dont want too big an age gap but I also want Isaac to nurse as long as he wants/needs. I don't want to have to make that decision

 

[Hellodoris]

Hi Ladies,
Currently nursing my 16month old and pregnant with number 2. Having a slight worry that I am getting quite painful cramps when she is nursing, am I just worrying for nothing or should I stop (really don't want too).

Any help, advice would be ace..

X

 

[Tacey]

Hi Ladies,
Currently nursing my 16month old and pregnant with number 2. Having a slight worry that I am getting quite painful cramps when she is nursing, am I just worrying for nothing or should I stop (really don't want too).

Any help, advice would be ace..

X

I've had similar, although it seems to be easing off now I'm dry nursing. I found this quite a useful article. It's difficult to be completely certain that it's safe, but after reading that, I was reassured that I personally felt OK to continue.

 

[TigerLady]

:wave:

My experience: I was EBF my DS when my cycles returned. He was 14 weeks old. It corresponded with him using his thumb to comfort suck instead of me. I started BBT charting as I didn’t want to TTC again until DS was about 12 months old. On my 3rd cycle – oops!! – we DTD once and I o’ed 2-3 days later. 7 days after that I knew I was pg. At 14dpo I took a test to confirm. Yup. I was pg. We conceived DD when DS was precisely 5 months old.

I have a history of oversupply and forceful let down. That probably helped some, tbh. At first I experienced a small dip in supply, but nothing major. My biggest challenges in first tri:
--extreme exhaustion. BFing while pg has to be one of the most emotionally, mentally, and physically draining things a woman can do, imho.
--some nipple pain
--slow and painful let down. DS got frustrated by this at first. He would nurse frantically and start to thrash because he couldn’t get my let down to come. I would have to be very careful to actively calm myself and “visualize” my let down. This would help the let down come, almost like I willed. DS eventually adjusted.

The fatigue let up a little in 2nd tri, but not by much. I really did feel I was a walking zombie. That’s when thrush set in. Lovely. Feeding and pumping (I was also working full time) became a nightmare of pain. Every time. I felt like I had a hundred razor blades that started at my chest wall and were forcibly pulled out through my nipples. Repeatedly. When I pumped I felt like I had clamped my breasts in tight vices and was allowing a herd of elephants to tug on them. Ouch. Because I was pg, there wasn’t much I could do for the thrush. I took acidopholus and both DS and I ate probiotic yogurts. The thrush lasted about 5 weeks. That was tough.

Third tri was a bit less of a challenge. By the time I was 7-8 months pg, DS had night weaned and was STTN. Thank goodness! He was feeding every 2-3 hours around the clock until then. By the time he was 12 months he had self weaned down to 3 feeds per day. My biggest third tri battle was BF agitation.
About a week before DD was born, DS got very fussy at the breast. I didn’t give it much thought, though. I was still too far from my EDD. However, DD decided to come early! She was born at 36 +4. My waters broke in the middle of the night. Early the next morning, I nursed DS and then went to the hospital. I had DD (via section) that afternoon. DS and DD are 13 months apart to the day. She nursed well from the start. DS came to the hospital to visit that night and had a quick nurse there. He wasn’t a huge fan of the colostrums, though.

DD and I went home from the hospital when she was 24 hours. DS, DD, and I started on our tandem nursing adventure. DD nursed like any newborn – all the time! DS was still nursing 3 times per day. They were important time for DS and me. They forced me to put DD down for 15 or so minutes a few times per day and devote some time to DS. It helped him be less jealous of DD.

I have only nursed DD and DS at the same time a few times. For some reason, in me, it creates BF agitation, so I don’t care for it. However, DS often like to snuggle up next to DD and I on the couch while DD nursed. We would talk about how she was eating. He understood that because he ate like that, too. He would rub her head and give her kisses.

DS weaned down to just a bedtime feed by 15 months old. He’s held on to that feed with a death grip. DD fed every 2-3 hours from the start. After about 7 months, she became a reverse cycler. She started dropping all her day feeds and now just feeds at night. But all night! At 17 months she still feeds 3-5+ times per day, or I should say per night.

As always, baby-wearing and co-sleeping was a life saver for me. I became very good at wearing DD in a sling, nursing her, while chasing DS around or cooking dinner. I have absolutely loved tandem nursing. As of writing this, DS is 2.5 years old and still BF, DD is 17 months and still BF. We’ve been tandem nursing for 17 months.

AF returned this time when DD was 7 months old. However, we are done with having kids (we think) so I had a non-hormonal IUD fitted when I was about 10 weeks pp this time. So, tri-andem nursing doesn’t appear to be in my future.

As always, I’m happy to answer any questions or provide any help anyone is interested in.

 

[Ozzieshunni]

I was hoping you'd come in TigerLady! I'll have to put all your info in a spoiler on the list

 

[TigerLady]

Oz, this is a common thing to have happen when tandem nursing and not many women know about it. You may want to consider a link on the first page...?

https://www.llli.org/llleaderweb/lv/lvaugsep03p90.html

 

[TigerLady]

I was hoping you'd come in TigerLady! I'll have to put all your info in a spoiler on the list

No no... I'll write something shorter... give me a minute.