Oh yes you read that right. If you’ve seen
this post, you know how much I’ve enjoyed breastfeeding and how wonderful my breastfeeding relationship with Duke has been. As soon as I found out I was pregnant
{and possibly even a little before} I started to notice that my supply was changing and Duke was getting much more frustrated when feeding which absolutely broke my heart. I would in turn get anxious and worried which does nothing for the let down process. Anyway, one of the first things I googled after finding out we were pregnant was if it was okay to breastfeed and be pregnant at the same time.
It is. I was so tired and breastfeeding was getting super uncomfortable so I was battling a mixture of pure mommy guilt and feeling plain old selfish. This combo is bad on a good day but being hormonal, pregnant, and feeling completely out of sorts anyway, I wasn’t handling things very well!
We started introducing formula and Duke took it just fine. He was a champ and has no issues with a bottle {those days were so awful in the beginning when he refused!}. I gave myself a lot of grace and had many conversations with Dennis explaining how much I needed his support, knowing that we wanted to avoid formula if possible, but it just wasn’t in the cards anymore. As always, he was incredibly supportive and I finally started to relax about the # of nursing sessions I was having and just do what worked. I was still pumping at work until I got back from a work trip to Minneapolis at the end of August {I transitioned to only pumping in the morning on that trip}. Now, I nurse Duke first thing in the morning when he is sleepy and snuggly and the rest of the day/evening is formula. I no longer feel like I’m wrestling an alligator during feedings and Dennis and I both get in good snuggle time when he’s taking his bottles. He also sleeps 12 hours through the night-hallelujah!
I’m not sure how long we’ll keep up the morning nursing sessions. I travel for work in November and December, so my guess is he will naturally wean off around that time, shortly after his first birthday. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited to have a break before baby #2 is here! We certainly didn’t plan to have our sweet babies this close together so we’re making some decisions on the fly and I’m doing my best to just goooo with the flow. Apparently that is much easier said than done for this lady!
Anyone out there have this same struggle?? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments below!
Happy Wednesday!
-T-
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