Monday, March 8, 2010
Tandem breastfeeding
So, now that my newborn is here we are tandem nursing. It is an adventure in itself and not always the most pleasant so far. My high needs toddler is still working through jealousy issues and my newborn is a lazy nurser who I have to figure out how to wake up to nurse. The baby is finally above birthweight at 6 weeks old and that was a struggle. Waking her at night was the biggest problem because the world could come crashing down beside her and she'd sleep through it. She right now is sleeping a four hour stretch and then wakes up. We, unfortunately, are being asked to supplement even though I know why she wasn't gaining in the beginning between being jaundiced and then sleeping so much in a 12 hour stretch at night. Our solution to the sleeping is sleeping with her and letting her have full access at night. So, she nurses after her four hour stretch for the rest of the night until the toddler wakes up. When he's awake then we start our day and get rolling. I'm still trying to figure out how to meet everyone's needs including my own. But, I just started reading "Adventures in Tandem Breastfeeding" by Hilary Flowers and I'm sorry I didn't start it when I got pregnant so I could have prepared myself better. I'll keep you posted on our journey! Happy lactating.
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ah, your experience sounds similar to ours. Our newborn had some trouble nursing at the beginning which exacerbated his jaundice. He was very lathargic and we've been waking him up every two hours (after he finishes nursing). He's much more alert now that his bilirubin levels are back down though and he's eating much better. It was really tough at first, especially when our pediatrician kept pushing formula. He was worried when DS was 3.4kg 10 days after birth when his birthweight was only 3.7kg. I thought that was a little much, but we live in the Middle East and women here are constantly looking for a reason to not have to breastfeed. It's encouraging to know that other moms go through the same type of thing, so thanks :)
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