[pvanabel]

We have a bio 9 month old and 9 month old Guata princess. I have currently nursing our bio and would like to try to nurse, even just one time a day, our newest daugther. Can anyone give me tips on how to do this and have it be effective? How long did it take you to have it go smoothly?
Any help would be great.
Kristie

[humanpitchpipe]

There is someone on the General Adoption boards who is doing this. Her screen name is Whirled Peas. You might want to PM her.

[guatparents2be]

good for you!!
i would think more than once a day would be even better! you should be able to get her nursing regularly.

we got donated breast milk and fed it to julian in a bottle. i wish i had tried to breast feed and i didn't have a bio baby.

there is a yahoo group for parents who choose to nurse adopted children.
pm if you want the info.
also nursereedle on this site is a wealth of info
do a search for adoptive breast feeding on the forum, you'll get lots of threads.

this should be easy for you once the baby learns to feed. what a blessing!

[angel_bayou]

ditto nursereedle!! She did this for her son and I'm not sure if he has been weaned or not yet. GREAT source of info!!

I know my doctor suggested I try to nurse my DD when she came home since five weeks before i gave birth and was nursing her. I did give her some pumped breast milk and she did fine. I'd say if you want to try go fo it!! It's a great bonding experience too!

[robandjulie]

you may also want to check out kellymom.com . It's a great resource for nursing in general.

Congrats!

[annaguat]

I nursed several of my children by adoption. Like you I wa snursing a bio child or just finnished nursing a bio child. I did not nurse my last two though but did give them donated breast milk. Anna

[nurse_reedle]

Hi! Congratulations!!!! How exciting! I started nursing my son at 7.5 months and he is 3 years and 3 months, still nursing and we are adopting again. I plan to nurse that baby also.

In our case, I took medication to help my milk come in. I think you could just start pumping and it would encourage your body to make more milk, or you could just start trying baby at the breast when they arrive. Teaching the baby to latch is the hardest (and most painful!) part. We had a lot of biting with two tiny little teeth, but I quickly learned to keep one finger in the forner of his mouth ready to do damage control until he figured it out. Trust is another issue that is rarely talked about, and some babies just can't breastfeed until they have built enough trust in you. It could be relatively easy (Isaac was 24 hours to the minute practically and he started breastfeeding) or it could be months of trial and error. Some good sites are:

kellymom :: Breastfeeding and Parenting
Home
Ask Lenore ~ Home Page
There is also a yahoo group which I will PM you the name of :-) If you have more questions, I will PM you my direct email addy.

RiAnnon

[pvanabel]

Thank you all - I will keep trying. I know I have a good supply that keeps up with our bio 9 month old, I do have some pumped that I can give her as well, I will try once a day to get her to latch on and see what works. I will try my best. Thank you for the resources.

[SKL]

Just wanted to wish you good luck. I was not able to do this, but would have loved to if circumstances allowed. I hope all goes as smoothly as possible for you and your baby.

[pvanabel]

I pumped a few ounces this morning after I nursed our bio and new babe took 2 ounces out of a bottle no problem...yeah..so if she won't latch on I know that a few times a day I can give her pumped milk...

[nurse_reedle]

Sounds like you are doing great. The only thing I would change is I would try and latch her every.single. time. you go to feed her. Once a day, when she is taking a bottle so much, isn't really much to help her figure out that she should be latching to the breast instead. Other than that, sounds like you are doing great!

[pvanabel]

I know I have to try more often, hard to do when both babies need to eat at once and sometimes someone else needs to feed with bottle. I will keep trying.

[coachmom]

I nursed our adopted son when he came home at 8 months.. I used the lact-aid to get him to latch on... I never really got enough milk back in(my bio 3 yr old was still nursing a little) so I used a organic toddler formula inthe lact-aid.. it worked great and he nursed until he was a year.. it really helped us bond.
Good for you!!!
Coachmom

[KarynB]

You might want to try co-bathing with new baby and get him/her nice and relaxed and sleepy and try latching then - it can really help!

Another thing you could try is to buy a nipple shield (Medela) and get her to latch onto that...that is one step closer to the actual breast.

If you don't want to add medication to increase your supply you may want to take fenugreek, mothers milk teas and eat lots of oatmeal...

I've nursed our ababy for almost two years now - feel free to PM me if you need any help!

[pvanabel]

Great idea on the nipple shield, I am going to get one tomorrow. We had to use one with our son when he was first born too - had a hard time latching on one side.
What is lact-aid?
So fenugreek, what kind of tea?
I know that a beer makes my milk come in too - anything else?