So when I found out I was pregnant it wasn't even a concern in my book. It never crossed my mind.
Breast is best and that is what my son was going to get when he was born for at least a year.
My son was almost two months early. He was born on May 26, 2006 even though he was due on July 17, 2006. This caused a few complications in my plan to breastfeed but I was determined to do it no matter what it took. Judah was in the NICU for two weeks and two days and I went up to the hospital everyday and we tried and tried to get him to nurse but my nipples and boobs were just too large for for his little preemie mouth to latch. So we started him on a preemie bottle with expressed breast milk.
The bottle seemed to work fine so we decided that it would be best to keep him on the bottle with EBM for as long as it was needed. Also we were fortifying the breastmilk with the extra caloric formula just so he would gain the weight that was needed. What we did was just added a scoop of the formula to a bottle full of EBM. Judah came home drinking from the bottle and I continued to put Judah to the breast at every chance I had. When he wanted to eat it was breast first then a bottle, when he wanted to just suck on something he was at the breast, sometimes randomly between I would encourage him to nurse so that he could get all the practice he needed.
During this time of pumping and attempting to get him to nurse I got more plugged ducts than I could even start to count. I got a nursing blister and the plugged ducts led to recurring mastitis. I suffered from mastitis three times in 3 months. These were the most miserable three months of my breastfeeding experience.
During my third case of mastitis I remember calling my mom telling her that I want to give Judah the best and that I felt I just couldn't keep up with this whole breastfeeding thing because of the recurring mastitis. I felt like I was going to be a failure if I quit. I knew deep down in my heart that I did not want to stop. I did not want to give up and give Judah formula. I KNEW that my milk is what was best for him, and with him being premature it made me want to breastfeed even more because of his fragile immune system.
The first three months were the worst three months because of the continuous pumping, nursing blister, engorgement, plugged ducts and mastitis. Over the next two months Judah actually started nursing more and more. He was getting bigger and stronger, and even though he would get tired more quickly at the breast he was enjoying it just as much as I was.
Around the 5 month mark he actually came off of the bottle and started nursing exclusively!
I was thrilled and overjoyed that I could experience that sweet mother to child bond that I had been missing out on the first five months of my sons life!
Judah is now 21 months old and is still nursing.
I plan to nurse him until his little brother or sister is born in August of 2008.
Nursing while pregnant isn't too much of an easy task when your breasts and nipples are so sore from the pregnancy. I also plan to tandem nurse when this baby arrives. I will update this post once baby #2 is born to keep track of how my nursing is going once baby is here!"
I ended up weaning Judah at 22 months as he was only nursing at night and was waking up every couple of hours to nurse and my milk was already dried up.
Ora was born August 22, 2008. I was going to breastfeed her no matter what. It was not easy the second time around. It took Ora 3 months to latch to the breast.
So I was pumping regularly and putting her to the breast every chance I got.
It was pretty similar to my experience with Judah except I never got mastitis.
I nursed Ora until she was 15 months and stopped because she was waking up several times a night.
Ariah was born May 10, 2011.
Due to medication I had to take I was not able to nurse him. I felt awful and felt like he got the short end of the stick, but he is happy and healthy :)
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