Hi

In response to Jay's questions about breastfeeding during pregnancy,
I thought I'd share from my own experience.  I was committed to
letting my daughter Aimee choose when to wean herself.  My periods
returned when she was 21 months old, and I became pregnant when she
was 24 months old.  She continued to nurse first thing in the morning
and at naptimes and bedtime throughout the pregnancy.  By the fifth
month her nursing sessions were pretty short (5-10 min.), so I hand
expressed to see what she was getting and it was just colostrom.  I
asked her if mommy's milk tasted different, and she said it did but
she still liked to nurse.


 My milk came in on the third day in great quantity, and as much as I
didn't want to encourage Aimee to increase her nursing, I let her
"help Mommy" by relieving some of the pressure because Jenny just
couldn't keep up with the volume I was producing.  The alternative to
using Aimee would have been to use the pump my LLLL/ IBCLC friend loaned me
(I guess I'm not really a gadget person) or the cabbage she suggested
(my husband teased me too much about that one).  One of the
surprises I had was the kind of negative feeling I had when nursing
both girls at once.  Nursing them individually was okay.  I later
read  an article on tandem nursing in the Sept.-Oct. 1993 issue of Leaven,
the magazine for LLLLeaders.  It was really   helpful--wish I'd read
it before Jenny was born.  Jay, if you'd like a copy of the article,
I'd be happy to send it to you.  I also noticed that Aimee put on weight in
the  month after Jenny was born, possibly as a result of the rich
newborn milk.  The other surprise was that by about  the fifth week
after Jenny's birth, Aimee developed diarrhea that actually looked
like runny newborn bowel movements and gave Aimee diaper rash as
well, a problem we'd never had before.  We gradually cut back on her
nursing, but the problem wasn't totally resolved until she totally
weaned three weeks later.

On the positive side, Aimee felt okay about weaning.  The book
"Maggie's Weaning" helped; it's still a favorite of hers.  She
realizes it was Mommy's milk and not Jenny that caused the problem.
And she's convinced that moms have two breasts so that they can nurse
two babies.  The other day when I told her my future sister in law's
mother has nine children, Aimee looked at me in total disbelief and
said, "She doesn't have nine mores!" (Mores is our word for
breasts--when we nurse we have more.)


Dorothy Rae Collier
Moreno Valley, CA