vvvvvfee
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Post by vvvvvfee on Jun 15, 2017 10:36:43 GMT -6
For the purposes of this check-in, we will define extended breastfeeding as breastfeeding beyond 1 year. Questions are repeated and suggestions are appreciated! 1. How old is your LO? 2. How many times per day does your LO nurse? 3. Are you dealing with any BFing-related challenges right now? 4. Did you ever come close to quitting BFing? What made you resolve to keep going? Pregnant & BFing Moms: How are you doing this week? Any issues with supply, pain, aversion? Questions for other moms? Tandem Nursing Moms: How are you doing this week? Any current challenges? Questions for other moms? Non-BFing question of the week: Which of your scars has the best story behind it?
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vvvvvfee
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Post by vvvvvfee on Jun 15, 2017 10:43:57 GMT -6
1. How old is your LO? 23 months 2. How many times per day does your LO nurse? 3-4 3. Are you dealing with any BFing-related challenges right now? DS2 still wants to BF, but he seems to be done really quickly. I've noticed my supply dropping as a result. I know it's not necessarily a bad thing, and of course I'm not going to pressure him to nurse if he doesn't want to, but I do feel a little verklempt about it. 4. Did you ever come close to quitting BFing? What made you resolve to keep going? Never with DS2- he's been super-easy. I did consider quitting in the early weeks with DS1, when we were struggling with the nipple shield and it seemed like he always wanted to nurse but was also always miserable.
Non-BFing question of the week: Which of your scars has the best story behind it? I have a scar on the back of my thigh that is from my mom's c-section- the doctor cut too deep and cut into my leg (I was footling breech). Whoopsie!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2017 11:11:20 GMT -6
For the purposes of this check-in, we will define extended breastfeeding as breastfeeding beyond 1 year. Questions are repeated and suggestions are appreciated! 1. How old is your LO? 17 months 2. How many times per day does your LO nurse? work days: usually 3 or 4 then some overnight, non work a little more 3. Are you dealing with any BFing-related challenges right now? we did dr. jay gordon sleep method to reduce night feedings. dd had an ear infection and got back into nursing all night so we did the method again last night. i hope she dramatically improves like before! you basically pick a time to not nurse overnight (i do 12-5). she was up about an hour protesting but if past behavior is a good predictor or future behavior she should get back on her schedule soon (not BFing/ waking up between 12-5). the method suggest 7 hours but we do five. i recommend it! 4. Did you ever come close to quitting BFing? What made you resolve to keep going?nope. we have been fortunate to not run into problems. Non-BFing question of the week: Which of your scars has the best story behind it? my c-section scar although i barely notice it anymore! it's so faint. ETA: Thinking about it more, we have had some problems on the BF journey but the solutions worked when needed. DD could not latch well in the beginning. We used a nipple shield for the first few months and then she was able to latch on her own. I think i look back on it with rose-colored glasses Isn't there some hormone that makes you forget all that hard stuff in the beginning
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Post by Deleted on Jun 15, 2017 11:11:56 GMT -6
wow vvvvvfee,that is an incredible scar story!
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byjove
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Post by byjove on Jun 15, 2017 11:20:15 GMT -6
vvvvvfee, <3 on weaning 1. 18 months 2. A lot 3. Wanting to nurse all the time. Gymnurstics. Lots of hair pulling and face grabbing while nursing. Drives me up the wall. 4. Actually about a year ago at 6 mo. I went through a period of extreme stress, my supply tanked, and I wasn't sure it was going to come back. Pumping for nothing seemed like a special level of hell. But given her health issues, I knew it was important. And everything rebounded. And here we are today. Nothing too exciting scar wise. I must have gotten a spider bite a few years ago and it turned really funky (like there was hole, it was weird). Eventually it healed up but there is still a dark circle. Maybe a few more years it will go away.
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loony
Emerald
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Post by loony on Jun 15, 2017 11:30:55 GMT -6
1. 19 mo/17 adjusted
2. A few times a day. He's fine on daycare days and days I work, but if I'm home, he wants to nurse all the time. We have made it a week without nursing between 9-4am though!! He still wakes up and is cutting both canines and 2yr molars right now, so that's fun.
3. I'm not over it, but I'm getting there. I definitely cut him off more frequently when he's just messing around and I'm starting to get creepy crawly aversions. I made it 21 mo with DD and would like to get him at least that long, but we'll see how the next couple of months go.
4. I weaned DD because I was 17 weeks pregnant and still getting sick. I still did it gently, but I definitely got to a point where I almost barfed on her, so it was necessary. This time, I'm just recently feeling done. I think cutting out night time feeds and having a couple days at daycare a week are helping me to keep going.
I have a two inch long scar on my pinkie from a broken glass at work. The resulting surgery, pain meds and antibiotics resulted in my BC failing and getting pregnant with DD.
About a month after my surgery, my dog had a benign tumor removed and has a matching scar on her left pinkie.
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Post by billyhorrible on Jun 15, 2017 11:48:25 GMT -6
1. How old is your LO? 2 years! 2. How many times per day does your LO nurse? Once, before bed. 3. Are you dealing with any BFing-related challenges right now? I'd like to drop that last nursing session, but I'm not doing anything actively yet. 4. Did you ever come close to quitting BFing? What made you resolve to keep going? I never came close to quitting.
Non-BFing question of the week: Which of your scars has the best story behind it? I don't think any of my scars have great stories. Most are from burning myself on hot pans or cutting myself (not in a self-harm way). I do have some scars on my knee that have gravel in them from trying to ride my bike down a gravel driveway when I was a little girl.
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Post by maplebaconbar on Jun 15, 2017 11:55:20 GMT -6
1. How old is your LO? 2 years 2 months 2. How many times per day does your LO nurse? 4ish 3. Are you dealing with any BFing-related challenges right now? She wants to nurse for bedtime but then wants to play for an hour so I want to cut that session out since I feel like it's not helping and it's preventing my husband from doing her bedtime. He does my older kid's bedtime so we're talking about switching and I would just nurse before he takes her to the bedroom. 4. Did you ever come close to quitting BFing? What made you resolve to keep going? We had a brutal phase of thrush with my youngest but I can't even remember how old she was at the time. 4 months? 6 months maybe? I kept going because I had only ever nursed my babies and I felt like I couldn't add learning how to bottle feed when I was already teetering on the edge. Looking back, I don't know that feeding a bottle to a baby is hard but it felt hard then. Other people fed my babies bottles so it's not like they were bottle haters or something.
Non-BFing question of the week: Which of your scars has the best story behind it? I have a scar on the back of my wrist that got about a year ago. I went to go for a walk outside of work and I made it out to the sidewalk in front of my building. I had my hands in my pockets and then tripped over my own feet and went down hard. My wrist and my hand were bleeding and I ended up with giant bruises on my hip and knee. There were people walking all over the place that were all looking at me and I just got up, saw I was bleeding a lot, and made my way back to my office where I formulated a plan for getting to the first aid kit in the break room without being seen by coworkers. It makes me laugh now to think about how ridiculous it was.
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Post by aves0708 on Jun 15, 2017 19:30:23 GMT -6
Making my way over finally!
1. How old is your LO? End of 19 months
2. How many times per day does your LO nurse? Usually 4
3. Are you dealing with any BFing-related challenges right now? Slight pain, a little aversion..see below.
4. Did you ever come close to quitting BFing? What made you resolve to keep going? I never came close to quitting but I did let the thought run through my mind when I was experiencing so much pain during first trimester when she was 15/16 months. It was important to me to not doing anything to actively wean until she was at least 2 so I just kept on a going.
Pregnant & BFing Moms: How are you doing this week? Any issues with supply, pain, aversion? Questions for other moms? I am 26 weeks and doing ok. We made it through my trip away from her! She never skipped a beat when I came home and jumped back into nursing like normal. My supply is pretty much gone now though. I got some of what I think is colostrum when I hand expressed during my trip, but not much. Apparently she's satisfied with that and nursing for comfort. I still deal with initial latch pain on my left and the past couple days I've experienced a little aversion for the first time ever. Her nursing just felt....strange. We'll keep going though unless she tells me otherwise.
Non-BFing question of the week: Which of your scars has the best story behind it? I have a decent scar on my knee from when I played softball in high school and slid into bases. That's not really a great story though.
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lily
Gold
be a New Orleanian wherever you are
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Post by lily on Jun 15, 2017 21:08:22 GMT -6
1. How old is your LO? - 2.25 years
2. How many times per day does your LO nurse? - 4-5
3. Are you dealing with any BFing-related challenges right now? - nursing is the least frustrating thing about my toddler many days 😂
4. Did you ever come close to quitting BFing? What made you resolve to keep going? - no
Non-BFing question of the week: Which of your scars has the best story behind it? - when I was one, I tripped while running and bit my tongue nearly in half. So I have a scar across most of my tongue.
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valiente
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Post by valiente on Jun 16, 2017 3:57:19 GMT -6
1. How old is your LO? 16mos and 3 2. How many times per day does your LO nurse? 3x each 3. Are you dealing with any BFing-related challenges right now? No 4. Did you ever come close to quitting BFing? What made you resolve to keep going? No
Tandem Nursing Moms: How are you doing this week? Any current challenges? Questions for other moms? We're good. We have a flight coming up and I'm hoping the big is okay with not being able to nurse during takeoff and landing.
Non-BFing question of the week: Which of your scars has the best story behind it? I don't have any that cool. (It sucks you were cut, but it's pretty awesome to share a permanent mark with your mom from such a momentous occasion.) I have crazy stretch marks from my pregnancies in a sunburst pattern (my midwives put the idea in my head that this was special). I also have a little scar between the knuckles on my left hand where my uncle accidentally let a spinning top go.
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Post by maplebaconbar on Jun 16, 2017 9:41:28 GMT -6
lily, Sometimes nursing time is the only time I'm sitting and she's not doing something she shouldn't be doing lol.
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jewel
Silver
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Post by jewel on Jun 19, 2017 12:22:42 GMT -6
1. How old is your LO? 15 months 2. How many times per day does your LO nurse? 3 3. Are you dealing with any BFing-related challenges right now? LO just cut 2 teeth and when they were coming through I sustained a nipple injury, but the good thing about only nursing 3 times a day is plenty of time to heel. My boobs are also super sore this week... we are TTC so I'm trying hard not to read too much into every little thing! 4. Did you ever come close to quitting BFing? What made you resolve to keep going? Nope
Non-BFing question of the week: Which of your scars has the best story behind it? I guess my C-section scar... it was a rather dramatic birth story (i guess they all are though), all happy ending though.
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sammysam
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Post by sammysam on Jun 19, 2017 20:30:00 GMT -6
1. How old is your LO? 3 years
2. How many times per day does your LO nurse? Down to around 2...she has started cutting out over night sessions and now it's mostly bed time and mornings.
3. Are you dealing with any BFing-related challenges right now? Nope.
4. Did you ever come close to quitting BFing? What made you resolve to keep going? It took 3 months for my milk to come in...we did a feeding tube attached to my nipple, pumping, and medication and I still struggled with low supply after everything. My mom encouraged me to tough it out. I'm so glad I did but if it wouldn't have been for her I for sure would have given up before we even got started.
Non-BFing question of the week: Like others, probably my CS scar. But I also have one on my ring finger from when my dad accidentally cut my finger off in a door when I was 2 and they had to reattach it. Some around my wrist and pinky finger where I got in a pretty serious snow mobile accident with my best friend. And one all the way down my forearm from slicing my arm open on our team bus on our way to a bball game in college.
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lily
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be a New Orleanian wherever you are
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Post by lily on Jun 20, 2017 19:12:39 GMT -6
sammysam 3 months! That's a rough start! And here you are three years later. That's incredible.
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Post by Dramaphile on Jun 21, 2017 8:53:21 GMT -6
1. How old is your LO? almost 19 months 2. How many times per day does your LO nurse? 2-3, sometimes more on weekends. 3. Are you dealing with any BFing-related challenges right now? we are finally night weaned (again). she got an ear infection a few weeks ago and back-tracked, and so we had to night-wean again and now seem to be back on track. 4. Did you ever come close to quitting BFing? What made you resolve to keep going? I'm considering weaning sometime soon, but I don't know if I'm ready to deal with the whining. Currently we're down to when I get home from work and bedtime, and then on weekends I let her nurse in the morning (if she asks for it), and at naptime.
Non-BFing question of the week: Which of your scars has the best story behind it? I don't have many scars, so I guess my best scar currently is a sunburn from a year ago that you can still see on my back and shoulders. We spent the day painting a giant banner for a soccer game in the sun, and even though I put on sunscreen several times, I got an awful burn on my back and shoulders (with a white outline of my tank top) that was pretty much burgundy. Pale people problems, man.
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byjove
Ruby
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Post by byjove on Jun 21, 2017 10:19:53 GMT -6
I think it's time for me to night wean DD. I've been personally struggling with lack of sleep and stress (and it's toll on my body). If you were to ask DD, she would without a doubt tell you that she's not ready. There is going to be a lot of crying. Any tips? Jay Gordon's tips have been a joke (and didn't work for DD1 either). I night weaned DD1 at a similar age and it was ROUGH.
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vvvvvfee
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Post by vvvvvfee on Jun 21, 2017 10:37:46 GMT -6
byjove, make your SO the night-time first responder if that isn't already happening. if you've been trying to slowly decrease the length of nighttime nursing and it's not going well, it might be better to just go cold-turkey. depends on your LO's personality. it will be a few really tough nights, but it will over with quicker. what is your sleeping situation? is LO already in her own room or is she in your room? if she's already in another room, i'd probably lean towards trying cold turkey and sending your SO in to soothe her (come in each time she cries and give gentle pat-pats and then leave, no taking her out of the crib). if she's in your room, it's tougher. i'd keep your SO on the side of the bed next to the crib or physically next to her in bed if you're bedsharing-- and you just stay uninvolved when she wakes. SO tells her, "boobies (or whatever she calls them) went night-night, you can have boobies in the morning"). then you might want to compromise and call "morning" 4 AM or 5 AM or something and then gradually try to push it forward to a more reasonable time.
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byjove
Ruby
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Post by byjove on Jun 21, 2017 10:51:52 GMT -6
byjove , make your SO the night-time first responder if that isn't already happening. if you've been trying to slowly decrease the length of nighttime nursing and it's not going well, it might be better to just go cold-turkey. depends on your LO's personality. it will be a few really tough nights, but it will over with quicker. what is your sleeping situation? is LO already in her own room or is she in your room? if she's already in another room, i'd probably lean towards trying cold turkey and sending your SO in to soothe her (come in each time she cries and give gentle pat-pats and then leave, no taking her out of the crib). if she's in your room, it's tougher. i'd keep your SO on the side of the bed next to the crib or physically next to her in bed if you're bedsharing-- and you just stay uninvolved when she wakes. SO tells her, "boobies (or whatever she calls them) went night-night, you can have boobies in the morning"). then you might want to compromise and call "morning" 4 AM or 5 AM or something and then gradually try to push it forward to a more reasonable time. Thanks! The sleeping situation is a little tricky. She starts off the night in a crib in a room she shares with her big sister. After her first wake up, she spends the rest of the night in our bed because she'd only do short sleep stints in her crib after the first wake up and it was interfering with big sis's ability to sleep. The plan will be to keep her out of our bed. We have a portable crib we can use in either our room or basically in the hallway, but she does not like sleeping in it. It's going to be tricky. And yes, if she made it til 4 or 5, and nursed and went back down, I think we could live with that for now.
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vvvvvfee
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Post by vvvvvfee on Jun 21, 2017 11:13:27 GMT -6
byjove , make your SO the night-time first responder if that isn't already happening. if you've been trying to slowly decrease the length of nighttime nursing and it's not going well, it might be better to just go cold-turkey. depends on your LO's personality. it will be a few really tough nights, but it will over with quicker. what is your sleeping situation? is LO already in her own room or is she in your room? if she's already in another room, i'd probably lean towards trying cold turkey and sending your SO in to soothe her (come in each time she cries and give gentle pat-pats and then leave, no taking her out of the crib). if she's in your room, it's tougher. i'd keep your SO on the side of the bed next to the crib or physically next to her in bed if you're bedsharing-- and you just stay uninvolved when she wakes. SO tells her, "boobies (or whatever she calls them) went night-night, you can have boobies in the morning"). then you might want to compromise and call "morning" 4 AM or 5 AM or something and then gradually try to push it forward to a more reasonable time. Thanks! The sleeping situation is a little tricky. She starts off the night in a crib in a room she shares with her big sister. After her first wake up, she spends the rest of the night in our bed because she'd only do short sleep stints in her crib after the first wake up and it was interfering with big sis's ability to sleep. The plan will be to keep her out of our bed. We have a portable crib we can use in either our room or basically in the hallway, but she does not like sleeping in it. It's going to be tricky. And yes, if she made it til 4 or 5, and nursed and went back down, I think we could live with that for now. i think i would push for making her stay in her own room, honestly. i think it's too confusing that sometimes she gets to be in your room to sleep, but sometimes she's in her own room. so she's always going to think that if she complains loudly enough, there's the possibility that she can go in and sleep with you guys. i say that because we just went through this with DS2. we actually moved both kids out of our room and into their own room at the same time. DS2 started out waking frequently (even though he'd mostly been STTN in his crib in our room), and DH used to go in and take him OUT of the crib and soothe him and then put him back in. so he was sleeping like crap, and therefore we were all sleeping like crap. DH was in and out of there constantly. so finally (with some encouragement from my BMB, lol) said to DH, we have to be firmer about this. so he started doing the going in, pat-pat you're ok, and then at first sitting in the room (you can also try the thing where you move a chair farther and farther away each night until you're out of the room completely), and then leaving the room. but NO taking him out of the crib. it was a painful couple of days (we started on a friday night), but after about a week he was sleeping a lot better. now we've finally got him into a pattern of mostly STTN until 5 or 6 AM. RE big sis, DS1 slept like a log through all of DS2's night wake-ups. can you temporarily move her somewhere else while you're working on DD2? like maybe move her mattress into your room for a couple of weeks? or have her "camp out" in the living room or something?
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vvvvvfee
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Post by vvvvvfee on Jun 21, 2017 11:16:40 GMT -6
byjove, actually, what about just putting her crib in your room and working on getting her to STTN in her crib in your room? and then once she's doing that relatively well, then move her into the other room? i think it's easier to get one problem solved at a time, KWIM?
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byjove
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Post by byjove on Jun 21, 2017 11:31:46 GMT -6
byjove , actually, what about just putting her crib in your room and working on getting her to STTN in her crib in your room? and then once she's doing that relatively well, then move her into the other room? i think it's easier to get one problem solved at a time, KWIM? Her crib was in our room for the first 14 months of her life. I am not sure if I want to dissemble it to move it back into ours :/ we are considering temporarily relocating big sis, but she's a good sleeper and I don't want to mess it up.
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vvvvvfee
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Post by vvvvvfee on Jun 21, 2017 14:03:57 GMT -6
byjove , actually, what about just putting her crib in your room and working on getting her to STTN in her crib in your room? and then once she's doing that relatively well, then move her into the other room? i think it's easier to get one problem solved at a time, KWIM? Her crib was in our room for the first 14 months of her life. I am not sure if I want to dissemble it to move it back into ours :/ we are considering temporarily relocating big sis, but she's a good sleeper and I don't want to mess it up. then i'd go with being hard-line about her sleeping only in her room. not saying cry it out, of course, just not taking her out of her crib until some set time in the morning. and yeah, it's a bummer if it disrupts your older DD's sleep, but it would just be short term. don't lose sight of your ultimate goal, which is good sleep for the maximum number of people in your household (it can't just be all about your toddler, as much as toddlers want to be tiny dictators). p.s. i don't mean to be a pain in the ass about this, but i did some similar waffling recently about DS2 and i'm glad i got that push from my BMB to be a little more firm about it, because now everyone is sleeping better!
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Post by Dramaphile on Jun 21, 2017 14:40:44 GMT -6
byjove having dad go in and be the first responder at night was one part. He would go in and rub her back and tell her night night and offer a cup (which she always refused) and then leave. he'd go back in in a few minutes if she was still crying and do it again, but not take her out of the crib. If it went on for a while, eventually I would go in. The other thing that helped was not nursing her to sleep. As part of bedtime routine, I nurse her with a small lamp on, and then we read some books and cuddle, and then I put her in the crib to sleep. I backslid on the no nursing to sleep when she had an ear infection and she started waking up again. It took maybe a week of the new nighttime routine and dad going in for wakeups for her to adapt and start sleeping through. If she wakes up and it's close to when I need to leave for work, I do go in and nurse her back to sleep because I can't deal with an wake toddler at that hour (usually she is still asleep when I leave, dad is a SAHP). Toddlers thrive on routine, and if you're consistent it makes a big difference.
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byjove
Ruby
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Post by byjove on Jun 21, 2017 17:44:24 GMT -6
@vvvvvfe not a pain in the ass! I really appreciate your input. We've set up big sis on the floor of the office for a couple of nights and she seems excited. I tried to give DD2 a heads up to what's happening tonight and she kept saying No hopefully she doesn't fight it too bad. Dramaphile thanks! She doesn't nurse to sleep at night (part of bed time routine though) so I know she can do this. I'll send DH in as much as I can, but this kind of thing breaks him :/ Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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byjove
Ruby
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Post by byjove on Jun 22, 2017 8:58:57 GMT -6
Update: could have gone worse. I think it was the right call to move big sis to the new temporary spot. She screamed her head off from 12-1, woke back up at 1:30 very hungry and spent an hour eating her weight in veggie chips and chugging water. Went down at 2:30 without a fuss and slept until 6:45. I let her nurse at that point and she fell back asleep, but we had to get up for the day :/ I guess the big challenge will be getting her to eat more during the day. DNW one hour snack sessions each night
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vvvvvfee
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Post by vvvvvfee on Jun 22, 2017 9:45:28 GMT -6
byjove, sounds not so bad for the first night! if you don't already, i'd give her a snack right before bed. like turkey and cheese, pb & crackers, or full-fat yogurt-- something with fat and protein. RE water, we put a straw cup (a thermos one that closes) in DS2's crib in case he gets thirsty during the night.
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byjove
Ruby
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Post by byjove on Jun 22, 2017 9:49:39 GMT -6
byjove , sounds not so bad for the first night! if you don't already, i'd give her a snack right before bed. like turkey and cheese, pb & crackers, or full-fat yogurt-- something with fat and protein. RE water, we put a straw cup (a thermos one that closes) in DS2's crib in case he gets thirsty during the night. I'm definitely going to have to find something that works. Due to food allergies, she can't do any dairy or most easy/high protein snacks. She is also incredibly picky and is practically living off plantain chips, veggie chips, and raisins, oh and potatoes. I think DD1 had a midnight string cheese for a while I wish it could be that easy again.
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