my tandum-nursing adventures

Ever since forever Leona has been super attached to nursing. And with super attached I mean like super. It wasn't until I was a few months pregnant (and she was around 1.5 years old) that she stopped nursing 2-3 times during the night (ok, ok, that was my fault as I didn't cut her off, so her stomach was used to getting nutrition during the night and thus she would wake up hungry and want to nurse). I think she stopped mainly because my milk supply seriously diminished, as is common when you're pregnant, and so her stomach got used to not getting anything in it and thus eventually learned not to be hungry during those hours.

She totally didn't start to dislike the changed taste of the milk (due to pregnancy) either, but boy was she happy when my milk came in again a few weeks before Eliana was born. I remember her reaction: Surprised look, signed milk, then de-latched, looked at me, nodded emphatically while saying, also emphatically, 'Gooooood!'.

The plan to help her in the transition of Eliana being born was that she would be allowed to nurse as often as she wanted in the beginning. Thus, when she arrived at the hospital the morning after Eliana was born, and Eliana nursed, she climbed onto the bed and wanted to nurse too. And there I was, tandem nursing for the first time.

I have to admit it was a bit much for me sometimes, so I would have to ask her to wait once in a while until after Eliana was finished (I of course made sure Eliana got all the colostrum she needed, and a balance of for- and hind-milk, etc.). I was literally nursing her more than Eliana, both in terms of the number of nursings per day as well as in the volume of each nurse (because her stomach is a lot larger than Eliana's).

One of the greatest benefits of Leona's fondness (obsession?) with nursing I guess is that Eliana has always had way more than enough milk.

After a few weeks though, I had to start cutting down on the number of Leona's nursings, because it was just too much - and I think it became almost a negative, a stress, for her (and me), because it had gotten to where she never knew when she asked to nurse if she would get to or if she would get rejected. And being rejected about something like this when you are in a sensitive transitional state is not good for the heart. And she would really ask all the time, when we were out and about, when we were in the car, when Eliana got to nurse, when she felt stressed I guess (which was often with all the changes).

So I told her the new system, and tried to be consistent, and we quickly got back to only 5-6 nursings per day, then back to 4-5 (before and after sleeps).

Though we had a fall-back when we first got back to Taiwan, because she got sick (first time she's been sick in her whole life, excluding the three-day roseola incident when she was 10 months old or so, and I let her nurse as much as she asked (to give her my antibodies as I had just been sick too), and so it got her all out of balance again.

Anyhow, now she seldom asks to nurse outside of the designated times or when Eliana is nursing, making it a lot easier on both of us I think. And it is now only before the evening sleep and sometimes in the morning that they actually tandem nurse - and man are they sweet when they do! They will look at each other and hold hands and all that goodness.

Eliana of course gets to nurse wherever and whenever she wants, which gives a lot of positive responses from 'grandparents' that are out at the parks either with their grandchildren or exercising. I am of course as discreet as I can be, with a nursing top and all, but they will often come over and comment and say breast milk is the best for the baby and that it is great that I am breastfeeding her. Pretty sweet actually.

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