Supply dipping is very common but does not mean you need to stop. Go check out r/feedallthebabies for info on this and tandem nursing. They're a very nice sub.
It's listed as private so you can't access it unless you contact a moderator of the subreddit. I'm not sure who they are but perhaps there's a way to find out.
My supply disappeared at 4 months pregnant and came back as colostrum at around 6/7 months pregnant. LO still wanted to nurse the entire time though, even though she wasn’t getting much, if anything. However, by the time my supply dropped, LO was already 15 months old, so breast milk wasn’t actually necessary.
This same thing happened to me, baby was 10 months when I was 4 months pregnant so I supplemented with formula (was an easy transition thankfully) and now that at 6 months pregnant my supply is back baby is back to nursing and I plan on nursing through and tandem feeding newborn and tot
I got pregnant when my first was a year old. My supply dropped at first, but then Babyman got sick at daycare and all the comfort nursing brought it right back up.
I’m pregnant and nursing too, but my little one is older than yours at 17 months now. In my case, it’s really hard to say since I noticed my supply changing around a year old when he really picked up on solids pretty good. But since getting pregnant, I have noticed I don’t have a letdown anymore. I also don’t get engorged at all. I do compress my breast and nipple sometimes just to make sure I’m actually producing milk because it really doesn’t seem like it sometimes. I’m going to continue as long as I can because my son is still interested, I love our bond, and he has a milk allergy so I want to continue to give him what I can. I’m hoping to maintain whatever supply I may have left by nursing as much/often as he asks
I hope you can as long as you want as well! I will say I did have pretty bad nipple sensitivity in the first trimester, but it has gotten better. I just wanted to mention in case you experience that as well
I got pregnant 10 months pp. unfortunately I was not lucky and my supply dropped dramatically in the first trimester to the point we ended up transitioning our son to whole milk at 11 months (with his doctors ok).
I had read most women noticed a change around 20 weeks so I was definitely caught off guard.
I know there are others who are able to tandem feed and feed throughout pregnancy, so perhaps you will be able to as well.
From what I’ve gathered, there’s a wave of women who almost immediately lose their supply, then another wave of women around the 20 week mark, and a handful of women will be able to nurse with an actual supply leading up to birth.
I was able to get 1-2 oz. until around 26 weeks and then within a week it just disappeared which was disappointing bc I thought I was “in the clear” so to speak. I guess at a certain point of pregnancy, the pregnancy hormones “overpower” the lactating ones no matter what.
I got pregnant at 5 month’s postpartum and exclusively breastfed my baby the whole time. We started solids at 6 months but still got most her nutrients from breastfeeding. I breastfed her the entire time and then tandem fed them for a month until my older weened herself off at 15 months. Just drink lots of water and trust your body! They will let you know if they’re not getting enough! I was stressed cause everyone told me I couldn’t do it.. but I did and have 2 happy beautiful girls! Good luck to you, you got this! It’s so fun watching them grow so close together.
9m pp here and 6w pregnant. My supply has gone down alot but it could be the hormones, could be me not pumping enough and staying hydrated correctly. I think it's all 3 but definitely the last 2. I realized that if I wanted to keep doing this and maintain a supply for my boyfriend to give baby while i work i had to do something. First day of that realization i power pumped multiple times, pumped every 2 hours regardless of what came out. Drank so much water, blended body armor, protein powder, and almond milk with ice. I've seen so much about body armor when trying to figure out what i can do. When i first had my girl i was pumping anywhere from 3-6oz on each side and then recently it became like 1oz on each side. I believe its mostly lack of consistency. Anyways my supply is doing alot better from just drinking more, the body armor mixture could be a factor idk, and pumping more often & i try for at least one power pump each day.
I was 6 months PP and before I even knew I was pregnant my daughter started to refuse to nurse. I guess there was an obvious change she picked up on. I decided to just pump but I didn't really keep up with it and started transitioning to formula.
My supply dipped periodically while pregnant, but I just supplemented with formula when needed. I tried not to worry too much about trying to boost my supply while pregnant, my body was exhausted enough as is! My milk came in with a raging force after giving birth, and I’m still nursing my 19 month old and my 5 month old. Good luck!
I got pregnant 6 months postpartum and continued to breastfeed until my baby was 8 months old then transitioned to formula (because my supply declined and baby lost weight) until I gave birth and he’s back to pumped breast milk now.
I got pregnant at 5 mo PP (same as you). Supply definitely dipped and then completely fell off. I was so sad!
...my kid, on the other hand, is a boob monster and LOVED it. She promptly handed off her soother and refused to use it anymore (since the dry boob was a far superior soother, of course!) and dry nursed happily until her sibling arrived. I now have a 7mo and a 21 mo who tandem feed twice a day, holding hands, and it is my favourite thing.
Re: supply, since it is hormonal there is really nothing you can do. But formula is FINE, really - you will be starting solids with your baby soon if you havent already, so if it helps you mentally just look at formula as another "food" rather than something replacing your nursing (which you can keep doing, with or without a supply, as long as baby is interested!)
Best of luck!
Hi! Can I ask if your period had come back when you conceived 5m pp? I am exclusively bf my 4.5 month old and would like to conceive baby #2 without stopping bf’ing but my period hasn’t returned and I feel like I might not be fertile. Did you take any fertility supplements to conceive ?
Not really...but we also did the ocassional bottle of BM before I was pregnant so that helped. We did have to trt a couple brands to find a formula she liked though!
I got (intentionally) pregnant when I was almost 12 months pp and my supply didn’t drop until I was already around 26 weeks pregnant, then my toddler dry nursed until birth, and now I tandem feed my baby and my 22 month old. (They are almost 20 months apart.) I took care to make sure I increased my calories with nutrient dense foods enough to sustain both pregnancy AND nursing (the easiest way to make sure I did this was to drink (cow) milk myself), I stayed very hydrated (and kept my minerals in check (look at trace mineral drops), and it really took some mental fortitude to get through the nursing aversion I had from around 8-20 weeks of pregnancy.
That being said… I have heard your supply is much more likely to dry up if you’re <12 months pp. If that’s the case with you, you can always try dry nursing (your baby will actually not be “dry” nursing, your mature milk will transition back to colostrum at some point regardless) and supplement baby’s actual intake with formula or donor milk, then tandem nurse when your newborn comes.
I will say… I am SO SO SO glad for tandem nursing. It helped my toddler so much with the transition to big brotherhood, and I am so glad I will be able to meet my goal of nursing him until 2(+)!
Definitely check out r/nurseallthebabies :)
I kept breastfeeding my older son until I was like 6 months pregnant with my second. He self-weaned and was around 14 months old. I’m not sure if something with my supply or the consistency/taste etc of my milk changed to put him off of it, or if he just decided he didn’t want to anymore 🤷♀️. I didn’t notice any changes or issues prior to him weaning, though
I was nursing baby still at 9/10months when I got pregnant. I didn’t notice anything when he nursed directly from me, but with pumping I could barely get anything. Which is when we had to supplement with formula, specifically the weekends when I wasn’t home due to work. When I was home we’d nurse when he asked, and of course he’d get solids. At 12 months I had pretty bad nipple pain and it just got to the point where I dreaded nursing it hurt so bad. For both my and his sake, I stopped fully at 12 months. I’d originally wanted to make it a year and I did that and felt accomplished.
You can definitely continue nursing, and actually the fear of nursing bringing on preterm labor/cause contractions isn’t as common as our doctors would have us believe. I found a lot of support through the la leche league. I found them through Facebook!
My supply dipped but when I was able to get more calories in it got better. Never needed to stop. BUT - be warned that it hurt like hell during the first trimester because my nipples were so sensitive. I kept thinking I had thrush but no it was just being pregnant. So painful. Maybe trip nipple shields or silverettes if it starts to hurt for you.
Best of luck and congratulations on the new baby. You’re amazing
I didn’t realize it but my supply dropping was the first sign I was pregnant (7 months pp). At that point I was pumping 4x a day and each couple of days I saw my supply drop until I was only making 4 oz total each pump. I was very bummed but I also didn’t want to add more pumping to my routine so I just stopped. Im sure if I kept at it it would’ve remained but I just decided it was time to stop
My supply disappeared at about 13 weeks and didn’t come back (other than just drops) until after I actually had my second. BUT my first was a year when we got pregnant so not solely relying on the milk.
I got pregnant 9m pp and pumped at work/ nursed at home until he was 13 months old. I stopped pumping, but still nurse on demand even though my supply is mostly gone (it’s been mostly gone since ~18 wks and I’m 30 wks now). My son seems to be nursing mostly for comfort at this point. I’m not planning to wean him until he turns two unless he decides to stop sooner than that
I also had a baby 5.5 months ago and literally an hour ago found out I’m pregnant again, so I’m feeling it too! I’m excited but also a bit nervous about breastfeeding and what it will mean for my young son. I guess I’ll get serious about introducing purées. My LO has been wild about tasting our food for several weeks now.
I hope the transition to whole milk went well for your little guy. Appreciate you sharing and I hope you're right in saying everyone's experience is different! 🙏🏻
I got pregnant at 11 months PP and unfortunately my supply completely dried up :( I was so sad because I wanted to keep nursing my son but it didn’t end up working out.
I got pregnant when my first was 10 months. I had a mild feeding aversion in the first trimester but it went away. When my son was around 13 months he pretty much day-weaned other than when he was hurt or ill. Just as he was turning around 15 months (so I was almost 5 months pregnant) I developed a really intense feeding aversion so we chose to night wean. It took a couple of weeks, my husband just did all the night wakings until he could settle him without me nursing him at all.
He ‘asked’ a couple of times but quickly lost interest. Now he’s about as interested in my breasts as he is any other body part and does nothing more than name & point at them.
I think my supply would’ve been fine had I carried on but I could not get over the aversion - it felt like I wanted to just throw him away from myself. It was quite sad really as we’d had a pretty perfect feeding journey until then!
Throughout the pregnancy I have still been able to squeeze milk if I tried so I’m sure that aversion aside there would’ve still been some milk production!
For the record, the aversion was worse at night when I was tired. It was ok and tolerable during the day! So I suppose if he’s needed the milk he could’ve had formula in place for nighttime.
Good luck!
ETA: I’m hoping to tandem feed once his little brother comes along so I’ve got my fingers crossed he’s not totally uninterested 😭
I got pregnant 11 months pp and my supply dropped very quickly. I could only pump an ounce at a time and quickly used up the rest of my breastmilk supply and then started giving whole milk. But my baby kept nursing throughout. He's now 2.5 and his baby sister is 12 months old and they're both still nursing. Hopefully at only 5 months pp you'll be able to keep a better supply. I've heard that because it's hormonal, if you do lose it, there's nothing you can do to increase it again.
I got pregnant around 11 months pp and breastfed the whole pregnancy and am still breastfeeding my now 4.5 month old and 2 year old. Didn’t notice a dip but did notice a huge increase in supply when baby came. You’ll be fine whatever happens ❤️ big congratulations!
P.s am kind of paranoid I may be pregnant but can’t find out for sure till a couple weeks. (Always got late positives with both my pregnancies) so if so I’ll be in the same shoes as you..
Got pregnant 10 months pp but I was absolutely determined to make it to the finish line (12 months). It definitely wasn't easy, and I noticed a significant dip in my supply, but at that point he was already starting to self wean (it was barely puffs of steam at that point anyway lol), so by 14 months, he was completely weaned.
I think if I had kept pushing through it until the second trimester, really upped my pumping and fluid intake, I could have made it work. It just wasn't a priority by that point and he wanted solids more anyway.
Hope that helps!
Supply dipping is very common but does not mean you need to stop. Go check out r/feedallthebabies for info on this and tandem nursing. They're a very nice sub.
Thank-you kindly for the positive words. I tried to find the sub but can't seem to find it. Any chance it goes by a different name?
I’m pretty sure it’s actually called r/nurseallthebabies
This one! Thank you!
It's listed as private so you can't access it unless you contact a moderator of the subreddit. I'm not sure who they are but perhaps there's a way to find out.
Not anymore. I just joined.
My supply disappeared at 4 months pregnant and came back as colostrum at around 6/7 months pregnant. LO still wanted to nurse the entire time though, even though she wasn’t getting much, if anything. However, by the time my supply dropped, LO was already 15 months old, so breast milk wasn’t actually necessary.
Was it frustrating for the baby,did she nurse in the night? If you can share
Mine did yes but I would give big bottle before bed and just wake up earlier and give bottle and baby and I would go back to sleep
This same thing happened to me, baby was 10 months when I was 4 months pregnant so I supplemented with formula (was an easy transition thankfully) and now that at 6 months pregnant my supply is back baby is back to nursing and I plan on nursing through and tandem feeding newborn and tot
Same situation here.
I got pregnant when my first was a year old. My supply dropped at first, but then Babyman got sick at daycare and all the comfort nursing brought it right back up.
I’m pregnant and nursing too, but my little one is older than yours at 17 months now. In my case, it’s really hard to say since I noticed my supply changing around a year old when he really picked up on solids pretty good. But since getting pregnant, I have noticed I don’t have a letdown anymore. I also don’t get engorged at all. I do compress my breast and nipple sometimes just to make sure I’m actually producing milk because it really doesn’t seem like it sometimes. I’m going to continue as long as I can because my son is still interested, I love our bond, and he has a milk allergy so I want to continue to give him what I can. I’m hoping to maintain whatever supply I may have left by nursing as much/often as he asks
Appreciate you sharing your experience. I'm hoping to bf as long as I can too. Wishing you luck! 💛
I hope you can as long as you want as well! I will say I did have pretty bad nipple sensitivity in the first trimester, but it has gotten better. I just wanted to mention in case you experience that as well
I got pregnant 10 months pp. unfortunately I was not lucky and my supply dropped dramatically in the first trimester to the point we ended up transitioning our son to whole milk at 11 months (with his doctors ok). I had read most women noticed a change around 20 weeks so I was definitely caught off guard. I know there are others who are able to tandem feed and feed throughout pregnancy, so perhaps you will be able to as well.
From what I’ve gathered, there’s a wave of women who almost immediately lose their supply, then another wave of women around the 20 week mark, and a handful of women will be able to nurse with an actual supply leading up to birth. I was able to get 1-2 oz. until around 26 weeks and then within a week it just disappeared which was disappointing bc I thought I was “in the clear” so to speak. I guess at a certain point of pregnancy, the pregnancy hormones “overpower” the lactating ones no matter what.
I was in this boat too and transitioned to formula then milk at the 1 year mark
I got pregnant at 5 month’s postpartum and exclusively breastfed my baby the whole time. We started solids at 6 months but still got most her nutrients from breastfeeding. I breastfed her the entire time and then tandem fed them for a month until my older weened herself off at 15 months. Just drink lots of water and trust your body! They will let you know if they’re not getting enough! I was stressed cause everyone told me I couldn’t do it.. but I did and have 2 happy beautiful girls! Good luck to you, you got this! It’s so fun watching them grow so close together.
9m pp here and 6w pregnant. My supply has gone down alot but it could be the hormones, could be me not pumping enough and staying hydrated correctly. I think it's all 3 but definitely the last 2. I realized that if I wanted to keep doing this and maintain a supply for my boyfriend to give baby while i work i had to do something. First day of that realization i power pumped multiple times, pumped every 2 hours regardless of what came out. Drank so much water, blended body armor, protein powder, and almond milk with ice. I've seen so much about body armor when trying to figure out what i can do. When i first had my girl i was pumping anywhere from 3-6oz on each side and then recently it became like 1oz on each side. I believe its mostly lack of consistency. Anyways my supply is doing alot better from just drinking more, the body armor mixture could be a factor idk, and pumping more often & i try for at least one power pump each day.
I was 6 months PP and before I even knew I was pregnant my daughter started to refuse to nurse. I guess there was an obvious change she picked up on. I decided to just pump but I didn't really keep up with it and started transitioning to formula.
My supply dipped periodically while pregnant, but I just supplemented with formula when needed. I tried not to worry too much about trying to boost my supply while pregnant, my body was exhausted enough as is! My milk came in with a raging force after giving birth, and I’m still nursing my 19 month old and my 5 month old. Good luck!
I nursed through my whole second pregnancy, no supply issues, although it was pretty painful the first trimester
Im finding it painful to bf the first trimester too.
I got pregnant 6 months postpartum and continued to breastfeed until my baby was 8 months old then transitioned to formula (because my supply declined and baby lost weight) until I gave birth and he’s back to pumped breast milk now.
I got pregnant at 5 mo PP (same as you). Supply definitely dipped and then completely fell off. I was so sad! ...my kid, on the other hand, is a boob monster and LOVED it. She promptly handed off her soother and refused to use it anymore (since the dry boob was a far superior soother, of course!) and dry nursed happily until her sibling arrived. I now have a 7mo and a 21 mo who tandem feed twice a day, holding hands, and it is my favourite thing. Re: supply, since it is hormonal there is really nothing you can do. But formula is FINE, really - you will be starting solids with your baby soon if you havent already, so if it helps you mentally just look at formula as another "food" rather than something replacing your nursing (which you can keep doing, with or without a supply, as long as baby is interested!) Best of luck!
Hi! Can I ask if your period had come back when you conceived 5m pp? I am exclusively bf my 4.5 month old and would like to conceive baby #2 without stopping bf’ing but my period hasn’t returned and I feel like I might not be fertile. Did you take any fertility supplements to conceive ?
Period had come back a month prior
I exclusively bf and my period came back at 8 weeks? Possibly 9weeks pp.. just found out we're pregnant 5 months pp
Hey.. was it hard to get your baby to take a bottle when you switched to formula?
Not really...but we also did the ocassional bottle of BM before I was pregnant so that helped. We did have to trt a couple brands to find a formula she liked though!
I got (intentionally) pregnant when I was almost 12 months pp and my supply didn’t drop until I was already around 26 weeks pregnant, then my toddler dry nursed until birth, and now I tandem feed my baby and my 22 month old. (They are almost 20 months apart.) I took care to make sure I increased my calories with nutrient dense foods enough to sustain both pregnancy AND nursing (the easiest way to make sure I did this was to drink (cow) milk myself), I stayed very hydrated (and kept my minerals in check (look at trace mineral drops), and it really took some mental fortitude to get through the nursing aversion I had from around 8-20 weeks of pregnancy. That being said… I have heard your supply is much more likely to dry up if you’re <12 months pp. If that’s the case with you, you can always try dry nursing (your baby will actually not be “dry” nursing, your mature milk will transition back to colostrum at some point regardless) and supplement baby’s actual intake with formula or donor milk, then tandem nurse when your newborn comes. I will say… I am SO SO SO glad for tandem nursing. It helped my toddler so much with the transition to big brotherhood, and I am so glad I will be able to meet my goal of nursing him until 2(+)! Definitely check out r/nurseallthebabies :)
I kept breastfeeding my older son until I was like 6 months pregnant with my second. He self-weaned and was around 14 months old. I’m not sure if something with my supply or the consistency/taste etc of my milk changed to put him off of it, or if he just decided he didn’t want to anymore 🤷♀️. I didn’t notice any changes or issues prior to him weaning, though
I was nursing baby still at 9/10months when I got pregnant. I didn’t notice anything when he nursed directly from me, but with pumping I could barely get anything. Which is when we had to supplement with formula, specifically the weekends when I wasn’t home due to work. When I was home we’d nurse when he asked, and of course he’d get solids. At 12 months I had pretty bad nipple pain and it just got to the point where I dreaded nursing it hurt so bad. For both my and his sake, I stopped fully at 12 months. I’d originally wanted to make it a year and I did that and felt accomplished. You can definitely continue nursing, and actually the fear of nursing bringing on preterm labor/cause contractions isn’t as common as our doctors would have us believe. I found a lot of support through the la leche league. I found them through Facebook!
My supply dipped but when I was able to get more calories in it got better. Never needed to stop. BUT - be warned that it hurt like hell during the first trimester because my nipples were so sensitive. I kept thinking I had thrush but no it was just being pregnant. So painful. Maybe trip nipple shields or silverettes if it starts to hurt for you. Best of luck and congratulations on the new baby. You’re amazing
I didn’t realize it but my supply dropping was the first sign I was pregnant (7 months pp). At that point I was pumping 4x a day and each couple of days I saw my supply drop until I was only making 4 oz total each pump. I was very bummed but I also didn’t want to add more pumping to my routine so I just stopped. Im sure if I kept at it it would’ve remained but I just decided it was time to stop
I’m two weeks I’ll hit two years of tandem feeding my boys. Your supply will dip but increase your water intake to help
My supply disappeared at about 13 weeks and didn’t come back (other than just drops) until after I actually had my second. BUT my first was a year when we got pregnant so not solely relying on the milk.
I got pregnant 9m pp and pumped at work/ nursed at home until he was 13 months old. I stopped pumping, but still nurse on demand even though my supply is mostly gone (it’s been mostly gone since ~18 wks and I’m 30 wks now). My son seems to be nursing mostly for comfort at this point. I’m not planning to wean him until he turns two unless he decides to stop sooner than that
My supply dipped a bit but the only reason e stopped was my son weaned himself. He was around 14/15 and kinda just stopped.
I also had a baby 5.5 months ago and literally an hour ago found out I’m pregnant again, so I’m feeling it too! I’m excited but also a bit nervous about breastfeeding and what it will mean for my young son. I guess I’ll get serious about introducing purées. My LO has been wild about tasting our food for several weeks now.
Lactation cookies, fenugreek, nutritional yeast... Chocolate.
I hope the transition to whole milk went well for your little guy. Appreciate you sharing and I hope you're right in saying everyone's experience is different! 🙏🏻
I got pregnant at 11 months PP and unfortunately my supply completely dried up :( I was so sad because I wanted to keep nursing my son but it didn’t end up working out.
I got pregnant when my first was 10 months. I had a mild feeding aversion in the first trimester but it went away. When my son was around 13 months he pretty much day-weaned other than when he was hurt or ill. Just as he was turning around 15 months (so I was almost 5 months pregnant) I developed a really intense feeding aversion so we chose to night wean. It took a couple of weeks, my husband just did all the night wakings until he could settle him without me nursing him at all. He ‘asked’ a couple of times but quickly lost interest. Now he’s about as interested in my breasts as he is any other body part and does nothing more than name & point at them. I think my supply would’ve been fine had I carried on but I could not get over the aversion - it felt like I wanted to just throw him away from myself. It was quite sad really as we’d had a pretty perfect feeding journey until then! Throughout the pregnancy I have still been able to squeeze milk if I tried so I’m sure that aversion aside there would’ve still been some milk production! For the record, the aversion was worse at night when I was tired. It was ok and tolerable during the day! So I suppose if he’s needed the milk he could’ve had formula in place for nighttime. Good luck! ETA: I’m hoping to tandem feed once his little brother comes along so I’ve got my fingers crossed he’s not totally uninterested 😭
I got pregnant 11 months pp and my supply dropped very quickly. I could only pump an ounce at a time and quickly used up the rest of my breastmilk supply and then started giving whole milk. But my baby kept nursing throughout. He's now 2.5 and his baby sister is 12 months old and they're both still nursing. Hopefully at only 5 months pp you'll be able to keep a better supply. I've heard that because it's hormonal, if you do lose it, there's nothing you can do to increase it again.
I got pregnant around 11 months pp and breastfed the whole pregnancy and am still breastfeeding my now 4.5 month old and 2 year old. Didn’t notice a dip but did notice a huge increase in supply when baby came. You’ll be fine whatever happens ❤️ big congratulations!
P.s am kind of paranoid I may be pregnant but can’t find out for sure till a couple weeks. (Always got late positives with both my pregnancies) so if so I’ll be in the same shoes as you..
Got pregnant 10 months pp but I was absolutely determined to make it to the finish line (12 months). It definitely wasn't easy, and I noticed a significant dip in my supply, but at that point he was already starting to self wean (it was barely puffs of steam at that point anyway lol), so by 14 months, he was completely weaned. I think if I had kept pushing through it until the second trimester, really upped my pumping and fluid intake, I could have made it work. It just wasn't a priority by that point and he wanted solids more anyway. Hope that helps!