Breastfeeding
litzo27
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Extended BF weekly check-in (5/22/13)
litzo27
member
Hello hello nursing veterans! Time to share.
(For the purposes of this post nursing past one year is considered extended. Lurkers welcome.)
1. How old is your nursing LO(s)?
2. How much were you nursing when got your AF back. Anything that one can do to speed up the fertility return?
3. How long do you go without BF/pumping? (both in terms of every day and in terms of trips, etc.). When you are away from baby how often do you pump?
4. How has your breast size/shape changed since pre pregnancy?
5. Anything else you want to share this week. If you have a question you want me to put into rotation - please post it.
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Re: Extended BF weekly check-in (5/22/13)
(For the purposes of this post nursing past one year is considered extended. Lurkers welcome.)
1. How old is your nursing LO(s)? Almost 13 Months!
2. How much were you nursing when got your AF back. Anything that one can do to speed up the fertility return? I wish I knew the answer to this!! My AF has not yet returned either
3. How long do you go without BF/pumping? I work as a teacher and I pump twice a day. DS nurses a TON while I'm home & throughout the night which is why I probably haven't seen AF return yet.
4. How has your breast size/shape changed since pre pregnancy? Much bigger & a little lopsided as he has a preferred side.
5. Anything else you want to share this week. If you have a question you want me to put into rotation - please post it.
1. 2.5 years old
2. I got AF back at 14 months. DS was nursing 3-5 times a day, plus 1-2 times a night.
3. On weekdays I work 8-4, and do not pump. We nurse in the morning, after work, before bed and overnight. On a recent work trip I pumped once in the morning, and once before bed.
4. They really haven't changed. I am still an A, although there was a time shortly after DS was born in which I was a large B.
YAY! My first time joining this post.
1. 12.5 months
2. I got AF back at 9.5 months pp. DS was nursing 3-4 times a day and 2 times a night. I also am on the mini-pill so I'm not sure why it came back so soon.
3. I weaned from the pump last week. Before that, I was pumping twice at work 10:30am and 2pm then the last 2 weeks went down to 1 pump. I have a freezer stash now and DS will get BM for the next 1.5 months at DC. DH and I went on a 2 night overnight trip when DS was 10 months and I had planned to space out my pumping sessions to 6-7 hours, but the day before we left my supply took a hit (I was ovulating) so I was scared and continued to pump every 4 hours.
4. I went from a C to a DD and they are now saggy
1. How old is your nursing LO(s)? 16 months
2. How much were you nursing when got your AF back. Anything that one can do to speed up the fertility return?I was the one that asked this last week. I still don't have AF and have baby fever (plus am getting old) so would love to know if there's anything to do to speed up return of fertility. I'm wondering how people "catch the first egg" just luck? I sleep trained DS at the end of March where we went from bedsharing and he was nursing all night long to no nursing for 12 hours. That didn't bring back AF. Then I cut out two pumping sessions abruptly and still no AF!
3. How long do you go without BF/pumping? (both in terms of every day and in terms of trips, etc.). When you are away from baby how often do you pump? Longest time is 12 hours when he is sleeping. I haven't gone on any trips but when I'm working I've cut down to one pumping a day with the longest stretch being 5 hours
4. How has your breast size/shape changed since pre pregnancy? I was a small B, at one point went to a big B, and now am a regular B. I'm not looking forward to them shrinking back to small B
5. Anything else you want to share this week. If you have a question you want me to put into rotation - please post it. What does everyone do about biting, when LO pulls off with nipple still in mouth, or clamping down digging teeth in? DS goes through phases with this. It seems to be when he is teething and it really hurts! I've tried ending the nursing session but lately when he is in this phase he will do it every.single.time. I've also tried giving him a teether. That worked when he was younger but not anymore.
Hi Ladies - Litzo, nice to have you back hosting this week.
1. DS is 16.5 months
2. I got AF at 13 months PP and we were still nursing 6 times in a 24 hr period plus 2 pumping sessions. We have no intentions of having another so I was in no hurry to get AF back.
3. The longest I go is about 12 hours between nursing at night and first thing in the morning.
4. One side was always a little bigger and bf-ing certainly magnified that difference. That side has also been my over achiever and responsible for most of my freezer stash. My main concern isn't my boob size but my NIPPLE size! I swear they have extended so much you can see them through my breast pad, through my bra and my shirt...and I'm not even cold. It's embarrassing...will they ever retract to normal?
5. Sharing: DONE WITH THE PUMP....Yeah! Between that and DS being on a great roll of STTN (like really STTN, from 7:45pm - 7:00am) I feel like a new woman and like I can BF forever. Although I won't. I promise.
Question: So when you nurse on one side at night before bed, then LO nurses the other side in the morning, what happens to the first side that could possibly end up going nearly 24 hours without being drained when you don't nurse until after work again the next day? I'm so afraid to let one side go nearly 24 hours without being nursed, that I usually switch him halfway through his morning session. On the days I'm home, I don't care because I'll nurse him again in a couple hours. But on the other 3 days, I'm too afraid that one side will get full and hard and uncomfortable.
Awww...that is so cute. I've been signing "milk" for a year now and DS still doesn't do it (although he does other words). His universal indication for milk is "nn...nnn...nnn" and pointing to the couch. Real creative, kid! LOL.
Hi brideinsummer,
Yeah, from the responses it sounds like this is very much an individual-body factor and some get it back quickly while nursing a lot and others much later while nursing little. For what it's worth the difference between by DSs is 3 years and I think it's perfect. In fact when I think about the terrible twos versus the mellow and relatively self-sufficient threes I feel relief that things worked out as they did for me. I know that's little help when you want to be TTC right now but it's the silver lining
I would say that the biting (along with the "twirling" but that's just me) is a completely inappropriate behavior and you should work on stopping it sooner rather than later. I would recommend taking him off and, not only that, but leaving the room briefly. However, that's if he is doing it when he is wide awake. If he is doing it when sleepy then your best bet is extreme vigilance - just watch him like a hawk, often you'll notice what precedes the bit - jaw slackening, nipple about to fall out of mouth for example. And then every time you notice that just push him gently firmer onto the breast. Good luck!
Thanks lisac. Good to be back
Woo-hoo! Congrats on being done with the pump and on the sleep. That is awesome!!!
I'll post the question next week but personally I nurse off both sides every feed (since I only nurse 2 times per day, 3 on weekends). Having said that I have gone for 24 hours without nursing and I no longer get engorged at all.
DS is 14 months.
No AF yet for me.
DS still nurses quite a bit, longest stretch is maybe 6 hrs at night. I still pump twice a day on work days. I'd love to cut back but I have no stash and DS is MSPI so not on any other kind of milk.
I went up a cup size for almost a year but now they are shrinking back to normal. The shape is definitely different, though I'm not sure how to describe it. And like a PP said I still have nursing nipples!
Thanks for the tips about the biting. I agree it's not acceptable. I have tried a few things and will try what you suggested. It's not all the time, he will do it for a few days then not again for a month. But even one time is too much bc it hurts!!!
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2. How much were you nursing when got your AF back. Anything that one can do to speed up the fertility return? My first AF was around 8 weeks but then I didn't get anything until 9'ish months. Now I'm back to a pretty routine monthly cycle.
3. How long do you go without BF/pumping? (both in terms of every day and in terms of trips, etc.). When you are away from baby how often do you pump? During the day I nurse at least in the morning and at bedtime. Sometimes she wants to nurse in between, but that's the least I can do. When I have traveled away from her, I pumped every 12 hours.
4. How has your breast size/shape changed since pre pregnancy? They definitely got much bigger! Now they are starting to go back down. I initially went up 2-3 cup sizes, and now I'm only about 1 size bigger. I expect them to go back to normal after I wean.
5. Anything else you want to share this week. If you have a question you want me to put into rotation - please post it. DD was pretty sick last week and over the weekend. BF was the only thing that kept her hydrated and comfortable. I don't know what I would have done if I wasn't nursing (and I've said this before).