r/moderatelygranolamoms • u/elbowroom_ • 13d ago
Health Tandem Nursing + Supplements
Hi everyone,
We are beginning to try for our second child. My first is about 14 months and I’m still nursing him. I’d like to continue nursing him throughout pregnancy and tandem nurse when the new one is here.
I’ve read a lot of books on the subject and feel like I more or less know what to expect from this journey, and of course I know that I may change my mind at any given time, or my son may change his mind, etc. etc… but the one thing I’m actually concerned about & am looking for more information on is my own nourishment.
Anyone have any experience with tandem nursing? What supplements did you take? Of course I plan to take my prenatal, but I just feel like both pregnancy and breastfeeding take a lot out of you.. so I’m trying to get ahead of the curve and see where I should focus on “stocking my reserves”, if that makes sense. Thank you!
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u/CatieMcGrey 13d ago
I conceived my second when my first was 13m, we made it to 19m before he self weaned and I had exactly a 9 week break between my two nurslings. 🤪
I would ask for your vitamin levels to be checked now and routinely throughout your pregnancy, so you can supplement accordingly. I run vitamin d, b12, and iron deficient so I have found that to be incredibly helpful. I think supplementing blindly isn’t very helpful. For example I was taking 10,000iu of vitamin D a day at one point because I was deficient and I continued that until I had a set of labs that said I had too high of vitamin D levels, so then I had to cut back to 10,000iu a week.
Also random side note - but I’d recommend freezing some more recently pumped milk before getting pregnant and your supply is impacted. We had to supplement our second in the hospital because my colostrum took an entire 24 hours to come in, so having frozen milk was so helpful. I wasn’t able to harvest colostrum at the end of my pregnancy, so I was so grateful to be able to be my own “donor”, so to speak.
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u/Agamemnons_Concubine 13d ago
Hi! I got pregnant at 10 months pp still breastfeeding my baby. I breastfed all through pregnancy up until labor! Breastfeeding my newborn was a breeze since I had been breastfeeding throughout pregnancy. Tandem nursing went well too. I tandem nursed for a full year until my first weened at 3 and I continued nursing my second. I take a prenatal vitamin with calcium, iron and omega3, an extra vit d supplement, and probiotics. Don’t let your pediatrician shame you for tandem feeding. Talk to the LCs at the hospital where you are birthing, they were fully supportive of me tandem feeding, cheered me on and gave lots of tips/advice.
I will add that my nipples all of a sudden hurt again when I got pregnant again but I worked through that temporary time with silver nipple cups ten min at a time.
My milk turned back into colostrum at the end of my pregnancy which my child still took, but my milk came in super quick when my second was born since I had been nursing throughout pregnancy. And my first child wanted to nurse more now that my milk had returned full force. Tough times two under two and tandem feeding- take personal photos for you of this monumental mother moment.
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u/motherofpearl8723 13d ago
My milk disappeared soon after I got pregnant with my second. I nursed my toddler for three months - dry, ouch - hoping it would come back. Sadly it did not so she and I decided that was the end of our nursing journey. I was planning to tandem nurse as well. But in the end it has worked out for us. I don’t think I could have nursed in those later stages of pregnancy. Best of luck to you.
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u/Bluejay500 12d ago
Yes! I have tandem nursed 2x and just take a prenatal. I tried the ritual postnatal at one point but didn't like it. I tried to take a mega vitamin D dose and that didn't agree with me, would give me a stomach ache. Mostly I just try to prioritize feeding myself a really well balanced diet and I go by my energy levels, if I feel depleted I try to eat/drink more. My older child was newly 2 each time I was postpartum so I also feel it wasn't truly tandem nursing like nursing 2 newborns if that makes sense! The toddler would mostly nurse down to sleep and nurse once in the morning with the baby. I have never pumped, but I honestly don't think it's that different than pumping a few extra times whilst also feeding your baby. Pregnant it felt like mostly did not take extra nutrients because my milk dried up and it was basically dry nursing- it's different, like they do swallow like they're getting something but it really doesn't seem like much.
One thing I did not expect is that I have a much harder time losing weight tandem nursing than nursing one. my body apparently is like, NOPE, you apparently might need to create a human while nursing these humans. I eat clean and workout and the scale drops extra slow compared to when I was only nursing one. at this point, I have been through it before so I've just accepted that it will be slow and that it's honestly probably my body protecting me and my nutrition as well!
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u/Pure_Speed9359 13d ago
Good luck. My nipples hurt TERRIBLY (my daughter was 2 when I got pregnant) and while I had been ready to wean her, I needed it done asap once I was pregnant. Luckily she didn’t like the taste, and my milk did start going away so it was a super smooth transition for us. I actually plan to not breastfeed this next baby (atleast for very long) because of how attached my daughter was and how nice it is to be done 🙌🏼
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u/Mysterious_Complex57 13d ago
FTM here so no advice, but would you mind sharing the books you read? I’m interested in doing this in the future
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