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

[BellaRosa8302]

I breastfed my daughter through my pregnancy and went on to tandem feed for the first four months with the new baby. He was born 2 weeks early at almost 9 pounds. I've never experienced a MC. IMO, I don't think breastfeeding is detrimental to the theoretical "new baby" or your current little. Like someone else said, YOU will be the one the nutrients will come from. GL to you!!!! It's a wonderful journey, and if your little wants to keep breastfeeding and YOU want to keep breastfeeding, I say go for it! Tandeming was never something I had wanted persay, but it was a pretty amazing experience

 

[AnneBurg]

Hi everyone,
First cycle ttc#2 here and I suddenly have some terror about being able to bf while pregnant! Ds is two now but still bf quite a bit, particularly at night. During the day it's only 1-3 times at most. But I'm suddenly so scared of things like fatigue and ms and nursing aversion. Did any of you feel this way? Were your fears confirmed or was it not as bad as you expected?
Thank you!

 

[Bevziibubble]

I didn't have ms much but I did get nursing aversion so I just had to distract myself during feeds. She cut down on her daytime feeding when my supply dwindled during the second trimester so that gave me a bit of a break, but she dry nursed at night and started up again in the day once the milk returned. It wasn't as bad as I thought, I just found tiredness was the worst thing.

 

[BunnyN]

I won't lie. I suffered pretty badly with nursing aversion. DD still fed hourly during the day (no idea how I got pregnant again, lol) when we were in the house. She would go much longer when we were out and she was distracted doing other things. She also liked to comfort suck at night. Eventually for my sanity I set limits on how often and for how long she fed. I made her wait at least 2hrs between feeds and only let her feed for 10mins at a time because I could cope with it for that long and after that she would tend to switch to comfort feeding. I cut out all comfort feeding because I found it was particularly hard to deal with. After a while we also night weaned. She accepted the changes quite well and we managed to keep up feeding through the whole pregnancy. Honestly you just have to take it one day at a time and not over think it. If you want to keep feeding now but it gets too hard later you just have to adapt. DS self weaned when I was pregnant which is also pretty common.

As for morning sickness. I had HG in the two pregnancies I wasn't BFing. This pregnancy I lost 2.5 stone i tri 1 and ended up unable to eat or drink at all so had to be on a drip. I only had bad but manageable sickness in the two pregnancies I did breastfeed so I actually wonder if BFing helped prevent the sickness for me.

 

[Jenny Bean]

I think I am about to or just ovulated....my nipples are sooo sensitive when my daughter is drinking....

Is this a common thing? I have only really experienced this once before?

 

[BunnyN]

My nipples were more sensitive when ovulating too.

 

[BellaRosa8302]

Oooooo that makes a lot of sense actually! I had my first pp period last month without nipple pain, but this month I've been in agony. I'm anticipating getting AF any minute now. I remember having around 2 weeks of pain with my first born prior to my first pp period. But, since I didn't have any pain with my first AF this time around, with my son, I couldn't figure out exactly what was causing it. Maybe my first cycle was anovulatory and this one isn't? That would explain the awful pain for the past week...

 

[AnneBurg]

I need your opinions ladies... Dh wants us to nightwean ds because we are ttc#2 and he has read that night feeding affects fertility... We are only on cycle#2 though so I'm not very worried! I had my first pp period at 14 months and have had regular cycles since about 18 months and ds is almost 28 months now so I don't think it'll be a problem. How can I reassure DH? I want to nightwean sometimes but when ds is sick I feel like it's so good for him!

 

[Bevziibubble]

I wouldn't worry. If your periods are back then that's great.
My daughter fed numerous times day and night and we conceived on the first cycle.
Best of luck!

 

[misspriss]

I need your opinions ladies... Dh wants us to nightwean ds because we are ttc#2 and he has read that night feeding affects fertility... We are only on cycle#2 though so I'm not very worried! I had my first pp period at 14 months and have had regular cycles since about 18 months and ds is almost 28 months now so I don't think it'll be a problem. How can I reassure DH? I want to nightwean sometimes but when ds is sick I feel like it's so good for him!

Your period is back and normal, I would not worry about night weaning. We conceived DD while nursing DS, mostly night nursing (I was working, DS reverse cycled and loaded up at night).

 

[Jenny Bean]

I am about to be starting my third cycle and am still bfing my 16 month old. I am also 40 so don't have much time left.

We got pregnant on the first try last time so I am frustrated (even though we haven't been trying that long).

I just want one more but am getting impatient, I am working bfing is causing fertility issues as I already had a MC back in May...

I wish I had a looking glass lol

 

[jessmke]

I nurse my 10 month old 3-5 times a night and we conceived on our first month trying, my third cycle since having my daughter. So long as your cycles have returned I wouldn't worry about night weaning.

 

[AnneBurg]

I'm 5 weeks pregnant, nipples feeling pretty sore (like a bruise) when ds age 2 is nursing. Any tips?

 

[BunnyN]

My nipples were like that at the very start of pregnancy. It got better after thet first couple of weeks then they got more sensitive again later in pregnancy. I am afraid I dont really have any tips. Maybe just make sure she is latched on nice and deeply so there isnt much contact with the nipples and cut down on comfort sucking or lengths of feeds if you feel you need to.

 

[gingmg]

Not sure where to post this... I'm getting ready to do a medicated frozen embryo transfer while still nursing my 2 yr old son. My clinic has a strict no breastfeeding during treatment policy so I have had to lie to them and say I am done in order to move forward. I have done my research and I know that the meds are safe so I am comfortable with this decision. My hormone levels are all back to normal at this point (which is the reason the clinic said no breastfeeding). I've posted in AC but haven't had any responses.

Could my son's nursing effect the embryos ability to implant? Or cause a miscarriage?

 

[misspriss]

No, I do not think it would cause miscarriage. I did have a miscarriage while breastfeeding but my hormones were still wacky. 3 months later I got pregnant with my daughter and had no issues.

 

[BunnyN]

In general I think no BFing doesnt cause MC. If your body is ready to get pregnant again I think it knows it. In your case its a little different seeing as you are going to have treatment but on the whole I think its unlikely to cause a problem. Breastfeeding can cause your hormones to be whacky which can cause your LP to be short which could stop implantation. So in thereory that could be an issue but if your hormones are back on track it sounds unlikely. Do you have regular cycles?

 

[gingmg]

Very regular since 3 months post partum

 

[BunnyN]

Sounds very unlikely you would have any problem then. You probably will find you loose most of your milk supply by about 16 weeks pregnant though.

 

[gingmg]

They said my chances are 50/50 that the embryo will take, so glad to hear if it doesn't, it is unlikely to be because of breastfeeding.