Chandler, Arizona
Sweet Pea ​Births
Sweet Pea ​Births
...celebrating every swee​t pea their birth
...celebrating every swee​t pea their birth
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Our Journey Into Tandem Nursing
Posted on March 9, 2012 at 11:05 AM |
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Our story starts with our third pregnancy: We had gotten pregnant sooner than we
expected to, and after the first trimester I started having contractions every
time I nursed Brussito. Since we had already experienced a miscarriage and I did not
want to risk another one, I weaned him in a matter of about a week. It was so sad for me, especially since I know
breast milk contributed to his speedy recovery from illness when he was an infant.
Luckily, he was at the right developmental age to wean easily and life
went on. Child number three (Bryan) was born, and we got off to a
great start to our breastfeeding thanks to an early visit to see our
chiropractor. He did a little adjustment to correct the
misalignment that happened during his passage into the world. It was a huge improvement over the 30-60 day
acclimation period with our first two children.
They had nursed better on one side over the other, and the pain was so
intense that it made me cry every time I nursed on “that side”. By the time Bryan was ten days old, nursing
was pain-free and I had never felt better as a nursing mom. Bryan and I treasured our one-on-one time together. I craved it because most of my day was spent
homeschooling our older children. He loved snuggling up into my lap throughout
the day. We co-slept at night. It was all “hearts and flowers”. After Bryan was born, I met a couple of moms through La
Leche League meetings who breastfed their toddlers through their subsequent
pregnancies. I was heartbroken. I wondered how come their bodies worked and
mine did not. I wondered if I was
“broken” in another aspect of pregnancy and labor (I had had two debilitating
pregnancies and my labors take a long time to swing into high gear). Fast forward to early 2011: When I got pregnant with our fourth child, Bryan was
eighteen months old. At this point, he
was older than Brussito when I weaned him, so I figured if I had to do an
emergency weaning, I could make peace with it since I had already nursed him
longer than his brother. At eighteen
months, he was only nursing three to four times a day: when he woke up,
sometimes a “snack”, at naptime, and at bedtime. I was determined to ask more of my body this time
around. Knowing that it could be done, I
set my mind to keep our nursing relationship going because I really wanted to
allow Bryan a child-led weaning like I had with our first-born (she weaned at
twenty-two months). We made it through
the first trimester with no complications.
Hello, second trimester…and the crampy contractions when I nursed! How was I going to make this work? I decided to “talk” to the baby. By that I mean that I communicated thoughts
and images to my baby in-utero. I told
the baby that the oxytocin she felt was for nursing her brother, not for starting
labor. I told the baby that she was
safe, and that my body was working for a few minutes to feed her brother. Once nursing was over, I thanked my body for
not creating contractions. This mind
over matter worked! The contractions
stopped happening when I nursed, and the pregnancy continued to a healthy
conclusion. I know that by the third trimester, Bryan was only getting
colostrum. One time I did a little
hand-expression when I didn’t feel the let-down reflex, and this liquid was not
white – it was the golden liquid so precious after birth. I asked Bryan if he was okay with that, he
nodded yes, and kept right on nursing. We read our sibling preparation books over the summer to get
Bryan ready for the idea of becoming a big brother. One of the books we read shows a mother
nursing the new baby. I would point out
that the baby drank milk from their mama just like he did. About 36 weeks into the pregnancy, I realized what we had done – I had almost nursed through a pregnancy! Then it sank in – Bryan had not self-weaned
in that time, and if he were still nursing, that would mean that I would be
nursing two kiddos concurrently. Now
what? So I went to my reliable La Leche League leaders and asked
them what to expect and what I could do about tandem nursing. They confirmed the information that a couple
of Internet searches had yielded: feed the baby first; and it’s okay for him to
get the “baby’s colostrum”. They assured
me that the baby would get all the colostrum she needed even if Bryan was
having colostrum, too. They also warned
me that he might want to nurse all the time again. The new milk that came in was going to be sweeter
and more flavorful than the colostrum he had been having at the end of the
pregnancy. Equipped with that information, I started preparing Bryan
for sharing milk with his sister. I told
him that when his sister was born, she would need milk, too. I told him, “Poor baby – so sad for her. She can only have mama’s milk. She isn’t lucky like you – you get to eat
pizza, blueberries, ice cream (and so on with other favorite foods). Not the baby.
She can only have milk.” From
there, I told him, “Since baby can only have milk, she will have to eat
first. You can eat (favorite food) while
you wait your turn.” He also learned this scenario: Q: “Bryan, how will the baby tell us she needs milk?” A: “She will start crying.” Now you and I know that we can head off the crying by
responding to early cues, such as looking for the breast, gnawing on
fingers/knuckles, suckling in the general direction of the breasts if they are
in arms. I wanted to teach Bryan that
when we heard her escalated pleas for milk, she was going to get priority and
that he would learn to be okay with that. Well, I did not have much to worry about the first couple of
days after Angélika was born. Bryan was so stunned by the sights and sounds
of the new baby that he ignored both of us for a couple of days. By day three, he started coming into our room
voluntarily to see us. By day five, he
was signing for milk again. And so we
started establishing the new hierarchy that we had talked about. The first few times we told him he had to wait for the baby
to nurse first did not go well. He threw
a temper tantrum and even hit me a few times.
Daddy Bruss talked to him and reminded him what we had talked about –
that baby could only have milk. Then he
would take him to the kitchen to find something to eat while he waited his
turn. Five months later, we have settled into a nice routine. He still enjoys nursing and asks for his
“cheche” throughout the day; it’s his version of “leche”, the Spanish word for
milk. Most heartwarming of all – when he
hears the baby crying, he comes running.
He tells me, “Angélika’s crying, Mommy. She wants cheche.” To keep my sanity and some modicum of independence, I set
limits for Bryan and I. Otherwise I would probably be
nursing, or eating to keep up with all the nursing; nothing else would get
done! The first stipulation is that he can only nurse at
home. Although I am happy that we are
tandem nursing, I am not completely comfortable with nursing a two-and-a-half
year old in public. My natural living
circle of friends would have no problem with it. The challenge is that I wouldn’t do it if I were
not around them – and that would be confusing and problematic for Bryan. Maybe I will grow a little braver with
time. The second stipulation is that I will only nurse one child
at a time. I have seen it done, and
heard of other mamas who nurse non-twin siblings at the same time. With four kiddos, I would rather keep the
nursing one-on-one so that our special time remains “our” special time. So now I am tandem nursing.
I had pictured this butterflies and rainbows under sunny skies, earth
mama nourishing her children…it has never been that for me. For me it is juggling time, it is
negotiating, it is being still when I have other things to do. And yet, it is completely and utterly
fulfilling. My babies are thriving,
thanks in part to the milk my body makes for them. It was not what I expected; yet I am grateful
for the experience. Disclaimer: The
material included on this site is for informational purposes only. It is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. The reader should always consult her or his healthcare provider to determine the appropriateness of the information for their own situation. Krystyna and Bruss Bowman and Bowman House, LLC accept no liability for the content of this site, or for the consequences of any actions taken on the basis of the information provided. This blog contains information about our classes available in Chandler, AZ and Payson, AZ and is not the official website of The Bradley Method®. The views contained on this blog do not necessarily reflect those of The Bradley Method® or the American Academy of Husband-Coached Childbirth®. |
Coping After A Miscarriage
Posted on January 7, 2012 at 9:40 PM |
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Planning for Baby - Part 2
Posted on July 15, 2011 at 2:06 PM |
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Child Spacing How did you/ do you get along with your siblings? Did you like your family dynamics growing
up? How about your partner? What was their childhood experience? This is a good place to start when you and your partner are
talking about “when” should you start trying to have another baby. There are families with children whose
birthdays are within a year of each other – not usually planned, however, it
happens! I suggest talking to people who
have this experience and see what they thought about it, and if they would
recommend it. If you decide it is not
for you, then take reliable precautions in the birth control department. On the other end of the spectrum, some families deliberately
space children out so that each child is essentially an “only child”. When one child is getting ready to start
kindergarten, another child is conceived.
These families try to maximize the one-on-one time between parent-child
in the formative years, and keep the children at enough of a developmental
distance to “try” to minimize sibling rivalry.
I don’t know that you can ever eliminate it completely! Child Count Back to the conversation on Tuesday – have you and your
partner had discussions about how many children you could comfortably support? Finances could definitely factor into this
decision if you have ideas about how and what you want to provide for your
children. Family size may not be of
concern to you if you feel like the basics of love, food, shelter and a public
education are enough; your children will have ample opportunity to make their
way in the world and provide for themselves.
If you want to provide them with more opportunities for hobbies or
sports, a private or higher education and extended travel, then you may choose
to have a family size that fits within a far-sighted financial plan. For example, when Bruss and I were talking about conceiving
our fourth child, we had conversations about whether or not we could provide
our children the opportunity for “hobby” classes and the college education we
want to provide for them if we both continued to work from home. Would we be willing to have a fourth child if
it meant one of us would have to rejoin the Daily Grind? What would we be willing to sacrifice to keep
on-track with provisions and savings if we did not want to go back to work in an office setting? Obviously, we decided to go forward with having another
baby. Since neither of us wants to start
working outside of the home again, we decided to cut back on the “extras”. We found many areas where we could save money
and acted on them so we could continue on the same path and have our baby, too!
Returning to the question of “how many children” - are you and
your partner on the same page? If not,
what needs to happen for you to agree on how many children you want in your
family? Why is one number appealing to
you, and why is another number appealing to your spouse? Do you have a career or business that you love and want to get back to - if "yes" to this question, maybe you are a "one and done" family. Some people consider birth order when it comes to making
this decision. Do you want an “only
child” or a “middle child”? Personally,
I know of many families where the “middle child” ends up being the only
productive adult out of the sibling group.
Our decision to have a fourth was not based on “middle child syndrome”. Watching the dynamics of the three children
in our family pushed us over the edge on having a fourth. As Bruss and I observed our children’s interactions, we quickly
agreed that having a “buddy” would be preferable to the “2 against 1” we saw. Sometimes the older two (sister and brother)
want to play together because they communicate well and don’t want little
brother meddling with the game they have going on. Sometime the boys want to play together and roughhouse
and older sister is completely left out.
Then there are periods of fleeting perfection when all three play well
together and it is heaven on earth! However, this dynamic is also tied to the spacing – our
children have birthdays that are about two years apart, so there is a little
rivalry going on. Here again, as parents
we see it as a trade-off. We made the
deliberate choice to try to keep them about two years apart so that they would
have close relationships as children and hopefully into adulthood. However, at their current ages of 6, 4 and 2,
it is making us be really good “managers”. Another factor I want to mention is religious beliefs. There are religions that are pre-disposed to
large families for a variety of reasons.
If you belong to one of those religions and abide by their teachings,
then your family will be as large as mom can continue having viable pregnancies. If you choose not to follow their teachings
because you want a smaller family, then you will probably have to come to terms
with using birth control methods that are not considered “natural”. Nursing Relationship If you breastfeed your children, nursing comes into play
when planning when you want to have your next child. How long do you plan to nurse? Are you willing to nurse two children of
different ages at the same time? Your idea about how long you want to nurse your child may
determine when you want to get pregnant again.
With our first child, I always thought I was going to wean her when she
was a year old so we could start trying to get pregnant again. Her first birthday came and went and neither
of us was ready to wean! We decided to start “trying” for another baby anyway since I
decided that I would be willing to nurse two kiddos at the same time. It sounded daunting at first, but when I
realized that the nursing needs of a two-year old are much different from the
around-the-clock demands of an infant, I relaxed a little. As life would have it, our oldest was weaned
before I conceived our second. This
time, our youngest is still nursing occasionally. It remains to be seen if I
will still be nursing him when our next child is born. Are you ready to wean if nursing could compromise your
pregnancy? Breastfeeding stimulates the
production of oxytocin – the one and the same hormone that stimulates uterine
contractions. If you are pregnant and
nursing, be aware of the tightening you may feel in your abdominal area if you are
still nursing an older sibling. Some
moms are able to nurse with no problem through a pregnancy. Other moms have contractions that are strong
enough to force the decision to wean if they feel it might compromise the
pregnancy. You won’t know which camp you fall in until you find
yourself in this situation. I suggest to
read up on this so you can be prepared and know which choice you would make
before you have to make the decision under pressure. La Leche League meetings would be a great
resource for more information – both the trained leaders and other moms would
have knowledge and experiences to share with you. Sibling Preparation When will you tell your children that you are
expecting? What will you tell your
children about the pregnancy and the baby?
How will you help them make the transition to being the “big brother” or
the “big sister”? These are questions that you and your partner will want to
agree on so that you are a team when you present your child or children with
“the news”. If your children are
younger, they will be none the wiser without your announcement. If your children are older…it depends on how
attuned they are – they may figure it out on their own. Without us telling them this time, both of
our older children noticed changes in me.
Subconsciously, they knew I was pregnant without a word from us. Once the pregnancy was established, we did
confirm their suspicions. There are several books on the topic to help you prepare for
a smoother transition. You can find
children’s picture books about new babies and there are books written for
parents. I am very excited that my
fellow Bradley® teacher, Rachel Davis, has offered to write in-depth guest
posts on this subject while I am “on leave” from writing this fall after our baby
arrives. Here are my favorite children’s books: Big Sister Now: A Story about Me and Our New Baby by
Annette Sheldon and Karen Maizel What to Expect When Mommy’s Having a Baby by Heidi
Murkoff and Laura Rader What to Expect When the New Baby Comes Home by Heidi
Murkoff and Laura Rader If you have any questions on sibling preparation in the
meantime, feel free to write me at [email protected],
and I would be happy to share what has worked for us with you. Disclaimer: The
material included on this site is for informational purposes only.
It is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical
advice. The reader should always consult her or his healthcare provider to
determine the appropriateness of the information for their own situation. This blog contains information about our classes available in
Chandler, AZ and Payson, AZ and is not the official website of The Bradley Method®. The views contained on this blog do not necessarily reflect those of The Bradley Method® or the American Academy
of Husband-Coached Childbirth®. |
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