Pregnancy and BFing

Rhapsody527

Hi ladies,

I just found out that I am pregnant with #2! I am still nursing my 13 month old daughter, and I am wondering if I have to wean her now that I am pregnant? She only nurses about 3x/day if that matters. I appreciate any advice. TIA!

Aknight1986

Not necessarily. She may wean herself though because your milk may change.

haleybeth81

DD weaned herself when I got preg and my milk went down ( she was already self weaning).

JennR

there is no need to but like pp said, she mat wean herself though many do not.  check out  the book Adventures in Tandom Nursing.  lots of good info.

JennR

...and, CONGRATULATIONS!

Zenya

You don't have to wean her.  I hated, hated, HATED nursing while pregnant though and it was the push I needed to wean my son.  I wanted to crawl out of my skin.  Not everyone feels the same way, though.

catmw21

I've gotten 2 different recommendations on this.  My OB recommended I wean by 20 weeks for 3 reasons: 1) Nutrition 2) Its taxing on the body to nurse and grow a baby 3) It can cause contractions after 28 weeks which could result in premature labor.

He is actually a pretty progressive doctor, in fact, he owns the local Birthing Center and has partnered with them and the midwives to form one practice where you have all options (labor in hospital, center or home, drugs, no drugs, water birth, c-section if necessary, etc.)  But I still wasn't sure what to do, so I asked one of his midwives.  She said she disagrees with him and feels it is fine to nurse and of course reminded me that others tandem nurse successfully.  She said she thought that was a very "male, doctor perspective."

When I spoke to him again about it and told him what she said, he said he still disagrees with her.  But was amused by what she said. (I think they get along really well)

Anyway, I'm still deciding what I'm gonna do myself.  We're only nursing 2 times a day right now and the evening one is pretty short.  She loves that morning one though so we'll see.  I'm gonna play it by ear and see what things are like around 16 weeks or so and then decide.

UrbanHippieMama

I'm still nursing my 11 month old with no plans to wean.  I'm hoping she'll self-wean before #2 comes, but I'm totally open to tandem nursing too.

Congrats!!

Married2MrWright

My BFF is due w/#2 on July 5th and still nurses her son (he'll be 2 on Aug. 21).  He pretty much only nurses for comfort 1-2x/day now and she's considering tandem nursing since the new baby will be here soon.

JulyFiveBride

I nursed DD1 all the way through my pregnancy. My MW was fine with it. She said to be sure I was eating enough, but  that nursing can help with controlling weight gain and makes you less likely to have severe m/s. I obviously can't say for sure if it made the difference, but I had awful, awful m/s with DD1 and it was 1000x better with DD2.

Like pps have mentioned, many babies will wean because the taste changes or your supply can dip. My DD nursed more at first, then started to slow down. Now she nurses about once every 2 days. My supply did tank in the third tri, but I was able to nurse once a day still.

14years

Zenya:

You don't have to wean her.  I hated, hated, HATED nursing while pregnant though and it was the push I needed to wean my son.  I wanted to crawl out of my skin.  Not everyone feels the same way, though.

Me, too.  DS was 18 months old, and I was 14 weeks pregnant, when I weaned him.

And, OP, congratulations!  You can BF as long as you want.