Armed with the knowledge that a newborn baby must nursed every 2hrs to prevent a high level of jaundice, I made sure that I nursed baby #2 every 2hrs from birth. Yes, that meant that I couldn’t nap as long as I wanted to but that was a small sacrifice compared to being stressed & worried when the baby gets jaundice high enough to warrant hospitalisation.
A side benefit of nursing so often is that my milk came in really early. I had my milk come in only at the end of Day 5 with baby #1. But with baby #2, my milk came in on Day 3! I remember that with baby #3, my milk came in even earlier at Day 2!
Baby #2 was what I called an efficient nurser. She would nurse 5 minutes on each side & was done! It was amazing compared to #1 who would spend 30min or more nursing if I let him. She was also more “vocal” in wanting to nurse when she got older. With #1, he never asked for milk but with #2, she would crawl over to me & lift up my shirt if she wanted a drink.
She nursed till she was 14mths – when I was 4mths pregnant with #3. By then, my supply had dropped & she was nursing just 2 – 3times a day. She decided that she didn’t want her “milk milk” anymore when I yelled out loud as she sank her teeth into me one fine day.
Actually I was relieved that she had weaned herself coz it was getting very uncomfortable nursing her. But I felt bad for the way it ended so I offered it to her the next day. She smiled & walked away!
#3 was a small eater. He would nurse just 5 minutes one side & was done! No matter what I did, he would not be interested in the other side. But he would nurse very often. I couldn’t stretch him to a 3hr schedule for the longest time!
I then found out I was pregnant with #4 when he was just 6mths old. I panicked a bit coz I had always wanted to nurse for at least 1yr before weaning them off. And I had put this request to God before. God was so gracious.
Although I had very little milk left, Aaron continued to nurse till he was 1 yr old. He weaned 2 days after he turned 1 – without any prompting from me. By then, I was already 6mths pregnant.
….to be continued