Ok, ladies! I need some advice! I have a daughter who is almost 19 months and I am nursing a three week old new born. I am only nursing the new born. My issue is that nursing the new born takes about an hour, and also need to care for my toddler.
Please share your experience and advice on nursing a baby while having a toddler. I am starting to wonder if this is realistic. How to manage time, ect.?
The easiest thing for me was to work out a routine where I took care of the toddler first, and then nursed the baby. For instance, my toddler would inevitably want something to eat and to watch a movie, as soon as I got settled, so I started getting him a snack and starting a movie of his choice when the baby started getting hungry. You could also try a sling or wrap that lets you nurse hands-free; it never worked for us, but lots of people on here have success with that, and it seems like it would be the best option.
Hmm well I am not there yet LOL!! When I had my second my first was 3yrs 3mnths old so he would sit and watch or play with his toys while I nursed. Now I am preggo with baby #3 and just stopped nursing my second about 3 months ago (It seems like its been forever ago he weaned LOL) When our baby girl arrived our youngest will be 20-21 months! I expect that he will be jealous just b/c he still remembers he used to nurse! But I think we will just have to work through it. I have always been lucky with my boys though that they rarely nursed more then 15 min...hopefully this little girl is the same!!! I will have 3 under 5!
mine were 15 months apart - it was tough but I survived :) One thing I did was nurse in the kids room, I shut the door so dd could not leave and wander the house, but I was there with her. It will get a lot easier pretty soon, the baby won't take that long to nurse after a while. I think around 6 weeks they start getting faster at nursing and don't nurse quite as often. I remember I kept telling myself "It gets a little easier every day" That encouraged me thinking it was going to keep getting easier. And it did, my "Big kids" are now 4 and 3 and are the best of friends, they are great at entertaining each other. hope this helps :)
When my twin daughters were born I also had a 17 month old, a 4 year old, and an 8 year old. I always tried to occupy the 17 month old with anything he enjoyed before nursing the twins. The girls are 6 months old now, still EBF, and we have all survived. You will find what works for you and your family. Keep in mind that the housework will be there waiting when you have time to do it.
It's totally doable, you might just find that you occassionally have to interrupt nursing your newborn to take care of your toddler (mine are 17 months apart). Try to give him an activity before you settle down. It works best if you have a room with a rocking chair and a bunch of toys that she can play with whiel you nurse, but no where to escape to. lol. Snacks at the ready are good too.
Quoting Creampuff07:Ok, ladies! I need some advice! I have a daughter who is almost 19 months and I am nursing a three week old new born. I am only nursing the new born. My issue is that nursing the new born takes about an hour, and also need to care for my toddler.
Please share your experience and advice on nursing a baby while having a toddler. I am starting to wonder if this is realistic. How to manage time, ect.?
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I am right there with you. I agree with what eveyone is saying. Our family room is baby gated so my DS (17 months old) can't get out and there isn't anything he can get into. So when I am nursing our other son (a month old) his bother is occupied with his toys, tv, and snacks. The younger one is getting faster about nursing. But there are times that I have to make him stop and get something for the older child. We are trying different babywearing things but haven't found one that he likes yet (sleepy wrap and peanut shell). So I am hoping to find something soon because I am in need of getting stuff done while LO is nursing, since he and his bother are on opposite nap schedules.
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- Creampuff07
on Mar. 20, 2010 at 10:13 PM