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Friday, May 3, 2013

On breastfeeding while pregnant.



Before BlueEyes was born I knew I wanted to give breastfeeding a try, but I didn’t have any particular goals in mind. I first wanted to see how things went and if I could even do it. Shortly after he was born he started nursing and it went surprisingly well. I was very lucky and never really had any problems. No clogged ducts, no mastitis, no nipples that were hurting. It was all smooth sailing. 

Before I had BlueEyes, I thought nursing a toddler, let alone a bigger kid, was a bit weird. I guess it doesn’t help that you rarely see people do it. But your own child becomes a toddler very gradually. So slow that you almost don’t realize that he’s not a little baby anymore. So there is no one day when all of a sudden he is a toddler and you ‘have to’ stop nursing. I’m still breastfeeding BlueEyes, because I really don’t see a good reason not to. What I didn’t realize before is that after about a year you can stop pumping at work, because your breasts slowly turn from milk storage units to milk making units (i.e. you make the most milk during a feeding instead of throughout the day). BlueEyes nurses shortly when we come home from daycare, he nurses (a lot) before he goes to bed, and then when he wakes up at night he nurses to fall back to sleep easily. And he nurses when he’s really upset and angry and when that is really the only way to get him to calm down.

And now I’m pregnant and again, before I had BlueEyes I didn’t even realize that that was a thing: breastfeeding while you’re pregnant. Well, it is. And now you know it too ;-).

9 comments:

  1. This is great to read, as my own daughter nears her second birthday and we start to get serious about giving her a sibling. I used Clomid to conceive last time, and have gotten significant push-back from my RE about using Clomid while still breastfeeding, despite the evidence that it isn't harmful. So for the last few months, I've been in limbo, debating whether to sacrifice nursing for getting pregnant, or put off getting pregnant to continue nursing, or whether to say screw it all and try both anyway!!

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    1. That's a tough decision. I was fortunate enough not to have to deal with that, but I hope you find a way that feels good to you!

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  2. Congratulations! When is the new baby due?

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    1. Thanks! I'm due at the beginning of December, so not for a while ;-)

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  3. Congratulations!!! Best of luck with the new baby.

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  4. I recently found out that I'm pregnant again, probably about 8-9 weeks along. My first born is only 5.5 months old. I want to continue exclusively breastfeeding him up to the one year mark but I've been reading up on it and everything says he may self-wean before then and that my milk will turn into colostrum when I'm 4-5 months along. I detest formula with every fiber of my being, so that's not even an option. Has anyone else dealt with pregnancies this close together and still been able to EBF the whole time? Did you have to wean to animal milk or formula?

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    1. Sorry for my late (and probably now useless) reply. My milk dried up pretty much and BlueEyes still nursed but definitely ate more and drank more whole milk. So with such a small baby, I would probably substitute with formula if you find your baby is not getting enough milk from you.

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