Tandem nursing thread

[€ileen]

Hi all. I'm new to the tandem thing, and I know there are a couple others of us on the boards. I'd love to hear some of your experiences.

My older daughter is 3.5, and my younger daughter is brand new. The first day I was home from the hospital- yesterday- she wanted to nurse a bunch of times, but she hasn't asked since she nursed first thing this morning. She didn't want to stop this morning because she's so happy about all the milk. Right now I really want her to nurse because my newborn has been sleeping much of the day (not looking forward to tonight) and I'm very engorged. I'm hoping my older daughter goes back to only at bedtime and sometimes morning nursing pretty soon.

[Good N Plenty]

Abbey nursed pretty frequently when Amanda was first born.  It was great for engorgement.   And I had a bout of mastitis/plugged duct and she helped draw out the clog much better than the baby did.  She's back to only nursing at bedtime and once during the night unless we're, say, out of town or something and she'll want to nurse more at night.

It was hard for me to get her back to that point in the beginning.  It was so hard for her to understand that the baby needed milk all the time and she couldn't have it when she wanted.  I did a lot of comparison of what baby can have vs what Abbey can have.

As it stands right now, I don't forsee Abbey ever weaning.  It kind of scares me sometimes b/c I'd really like her to be done by the time she's 3 b/c it's getting kind of out of my comfort zone but I don't see that happening.  I guess we'll just take things one day at a time.  It looks to me like it will have to be child led weaning here b/c she won't even hear of falling asleep without nursing. 

How is everything going now, Eileen?  You had posted this a while ago.

[€ileen]

Things are going ok. I let Lily nurse pretty much whenever she wanted for the first few days, because she was so happy about it and I had sooooo much milk. But it was causing some problems, like loose bowels and pee accidents because she doesn't usually drink so much fluids. Also, it was getting to be kind of annoying. So I basically told her she could nurse twice a day, and she could choose when. She's older than your dd, so I think it's a little easier for her to understand and accept- though she's not thrilled about it. But I know she'll get used to it. It's mostly been first thing in the morning and at bedtime. Sometimes she wants to nurse in the afternoon instead of bedtime, and I'll let her but I discourage it- she goes to sleep so much more easily if she nurses. If she doesn't, it becomes this long drawn out battle almost every time.