I have mentioned before that my goal was to nurse through this entire pregnancy, and then to continue on with tandem nursing (nursing two babies at once).
The jury is still out on the second goal, but I am sad to say that I did not make it with the first. We stopped breastfeeding a week ago (basically at 38 weeks pregnant).
A couple of reasons:
Firstly, nursing had gotten down to once every 24-48 hours anyhow, and it was only on one side (the other side finally reached the "CHECK, PLEASE!!!" pain level), so we were down to one side, but it was so blastedly painful that I was really limiting nursing sessions.
Secondly, nursing while pregnant has made me incredibly prone to cracked/bleeding nipples (TMI, sorry!), and I realized that I needed some time to let those heal before I have to start nursing a newborn round the clock (no use starting with the deck stacked against me).
(Incidentally, I have no idea why those issues surfaced during pregnancy, as I've never had problems like that post-initiation.)
So, as of last Sunday, I pulled the plug. Our little dude is 29 months old, which is far shorter a time than I had hoped to nurse him (especially with his health issues), and not even as long as I nursed our first.
HOWEVER! I am not giving up yet. My hope is to reintroduce as soon as our newest is born, and see if we can get back on track. That should only be a gap of about 2-3 weeks, so I'm hopeful that it can be done.
Anyone out there tried this before? Tips?
I'm disappointed, but we'll give it a go to pick up the pieces!
Diana, you should be really proud of yourself. Why not focus on the face you've made it with the breastfeeding until the pregnancy is to term rather than focusing on making it to when baby arrives? You've done amazingly well and when you consider you've had HG too you really have done something I'd have imagined was almost impossible. Well done.
ReplyDeleteI agree that you did an amazing job of breastfeeding while pregnant with HG! And 29 months is way longer than most moms breastfeed for (most I know wean at 12 months).
ReplyDeleteI can't even say that I nursed my kiddos for that long. Sadly I had to wean my 1st at 13 months (and that was hard on me) due to my severe HG with #2. Then #2 weaned cold turkey at 19 months. My last is 16 months and I really hope he goes past 2 years.
So Again, GREAT JOB!!!
I agree that you have done brilliantly - I am so
ReplyDeleteImpressed as I didn't consider having another pregnancy until my daughter was weaned.