Moms who BF an infant and have a toddler

[geek96]

How the hell do you get out of your house?  In my sleep deprived state I realized that we have 10-15 diapers left for DD which will last through today or the night.  BBB is less than a mile from my house but I am already panicking thinking about what I would do if DD got hungry and DS was with me while out.  I have never NIP which I need to get over if I ever want to leave my house with 2 kids but its not possible for me with a newborn to walk and nurse anyway.  


DS will be 2 in a few weeks and doesn't listen to commands very well yet.  He holds my hand for a minute then he tries to run away.  He screams and hates the stroller unless moving which wouldn't be possible if I had to sit and nurse DD in the lounge.  The solution for now is for DH to take DS out tonight to pick up the diapers and ice cream but I am definitely going stir crazy in this house with 2 kids.

[Brie]

Feed the baby right before you leave. Get in the car, drive to location. Then I'd load the toddler directly into the cart from the car and give him something to play with/snack on. Then I'd put the baby in a carrier, or put the infant seat in the basket of the cart, depending on the length of the trip and the temperament of the baby. Get stuff, go home.

[robyn]

BBB has pretty nice nursing rooms, can you take some things to keep DS occupied in the nursing room while your nurse DD? I think the rooms lock so as long as DS can't reach to unlock it you should be good. Maybe some snacks, a book or two, a tablet if you do screen time? I don't have 2, but I would always try to leave immediately following a feeding to get maximum time out of the house before having to nurse again. Good luck!

[Willis Jackson]

Can you bring some books to read with your DS in the lounge while you nurse the baby? I tried to go places where I knew there was something that would occupy the older kid while I nursed.

[Deleted]

Pretty much what Brie said.

And yes, get over the NIP thing. If you can learn to nurse in a carrier, it gets so much easier (but that takes a baby with some head control). For now, nurse right before you leave, and then again in the car after if you need to (with the toddler strapped in the carseat, unhappy if necessary).

[geek96]

Aug 28, 2015 13:34:36 GMT -5 @tokenhoser said:

Pretty much what Brie said.

And yes, get over the NIP thing. If you can learn to nurse in a carrier, it gets so much easier (but that takes a baby with some head control). For now, nurse right before you leave, and then again in the car after if you need to (with the toddler strapped in the carseat, unhappy if necessary).

What type of carrier do you recommend for nursing once DD has some head control?  I have a ring sling and Standard Tula.

[lilac05]

I agree with @brie and @tokenhoser.

I never felt comfortable NIP (which I recognize is pretty silly), but I did feel comfortable nursing in my car. I always knew I could step out to my car for "curbside dining" when necessary. (It helped that they were pretty predictable with nursing times, almost from birth.) The sooner you can make yourself comfortable with NIP, the easier things will be...but even if you never get there, it's still possible.

The anticipation is usually FAR worse than what actually ends up happening!

[Deleted]

Aug 28, 2015 13:50:01 GMT -5 geek96 said:

Aug 28, 2015 13:34:36 GMT -5 @tokenhoser said:

Pretty much what Brie said.

And yes, get over the NIP thing. If you can learn to nurse in a carrier, it gets so much easier (but that takes a baby with some head control). For now, nurse right before you leave, and then again in the car after if you need to (with the toddler strapped in the carseat, unhappy if necessary).

What type of carrier do you recommend for nursing once DD has some head control?  I have a ring sling and Standard Tula.

Both of those will work - just look it up on youtube. Here's an example:


And in the Tula:

[anna7602]

Not in this situation specifically, but I had to leave the house plenty last year with a NB and a first-grader. NIP gets easier with time and I agree with PP that BBB, in particular, has very nice nursing rooms.

Worst case scenario, there's always diapers dot com and drugstore dot com and even Amazon mom. I can't remember the last time I bought diapers at an actual brick & mortar store.

[VillainV]

Aw man, I hadn't even thought about this. Adding this to the list of stuff that will be more complicated with 2.

As for NIP, if you WANT to do it but just aren't comfortable, then there are a few things you can try.

A) Nursing cover. I tried these and they were good for when C was really little and needed help to latch because I wasn't just hanging out there. Some people feel they draw more attention to the fact that you're nursing. That didn't bother me because I didn't care if people knew I was nursing or not. After a while C didn't tolerate being covered anymore, but at least he could latch himself, so I moved on to:

B) Undercover Mama tanks (or any tank really). Shirt comes up, tank comes down, leaving very little actually exposed (and what is exposed is in the baby's mouth). I like having my tummy and the top of my boob covered. Also, it kept me from getting cold.

C) Just get over it. Okay, I don't mean this to sound harsh AT ALL. But sometimes the only way to get over doing something is just to do it. By the time C was 5 or 6 months I was NIPing just about anywhere and everywhere. I nursed him once in the appliance section at Lowes, because he was hungry and the sales guy was taking FOREVER helping the people in front of us. Honestly, I never even had so much as a weird look while NIPing (even in very conservative parts of the South), partially because by using Option B above I really wasn't exposed and I don't think it was obvious that I was nursing. Or people legitimately didn't care.

If you don't think you feel comfortable nursing in public, then that's fine too. It's REALLY REALLY OKAY. If this is the case, there are lots of places that have good nursing rooms (like Buy Buy Baby and BRU), or you can nurse in a dressing room at Target or a department store, or you can nurse in your car, there are lots of options.

[anna7602]

Also, this wasn't the case for DD, but DS used to fall asleep as a NB during long stroller walks. Do you have a double stroller? Can you walk to te BBB?

[geek96]

Aug 28, 2015 13:53:10 GMT -5 anna7602 said:

Not in this situation specifically, but I had to leave the house plenty last year with a NB and a first-grader. NIP gets easier with time and I agree with PP that BBB, in particular, has very nice nursing rooms.

Worst case scenario, there's always diapers dot com and drugstore dot com and even Amazon mom. I can't remember the last time I bought diapers at an actual brick & mortar store.

I thought I had another sleeve of diapers so I placed and order on Target.com last night but I will run out before they arrive so we need these for immediate use.

[geek96]

Aug 28, 2015 13:54:09 GMT -5 VillainV said:

Aw man, I hadn't even thought about this. Adding this to the list of stuff that will be more complicated with 2.

As for NIP, if you WANT to do it but just aren't comfortable, then there are a few things you can try.

A) Nursing cover. I tried these and they were good for when C was really little and needed help to latch because I wasn't just hanging out there. Some people feel they draw more attention to the fact that you're nursing. That didn't bother me because I didn't care if people knew I was nursing or not. After a while C didn't tolerate being covered anymore, but at least he could latch himself, so I moved on to:

B) Undercover Mama tanks (or any tank really). Shirt comes up, tank comes down, leaving very little actually exposed (and what is exposed is in the baby's mouth). I like having my tummy and the top of my boob covered. Also, it kept me from getting cold.

C) Just get over it. Okay, I don't mean this to sound harsh AT ALL. But sometimes the only way to get over doing something is just to do it. By the time C was 5 or 6 months I was NIPing just about anywhere and everywhere. I nursed him once in the appliance section at Lowes, because he was hungry and the sales guy was taking FOREVER helping the people in front of us. Honestly, I never even had so much as a weird look while NIPing (even in very conservative parts of the South), partially because by using Option B above I really wasn't exposed and I don't think it was obvious that I was nursing. Or people legitimately didn't care.

If you don't think you feel comfortable nursing in public, then that's fine too. It's REALLY REALLY OKAY. If this is the case, there are lots of places that have good nursing rooms (like Buy Buy Baby and BRU), or you can nurse in a dressing room at Target or a department store, or you can nurse in your car, there are lots of options.

I am going to look up these tanks.  I specifically picked BBB over any other place because they really do have nice nursing rooms.  I am more concerned trying to entertain my 2 year old without him running off on me while I feed the baby.  His attention span doesn't last very long.  Nursing in a carrier is probably the best option once we figure that out.

[VillainV]

Aug 28, 2015 14:00:44 GMT -5 geek96 said:

Aug 28, 2015 13:54:09 GMT -5 VillainV said:

I am going to look up these tanks.  I specifically picked BBB over any other place because they really do have nice nursing rooms.  I am more concerned trying to entertain my 2 year old without him running off on me while I feed the baby.  His attention span doesn't last very long.  Nursing in a carrier is probably the best option once we figure that out.

Yeah, that part I can't really help you with.  Actually, I hadn't even thought about it until I read your post.   I think a nursing room with toys and maybe a book (or a tablet) would work fine.  Or a family dressing room at Target would accomplish the same thing.    I was never able to nurse in the carrier, but I agree that it's probably the best solution if you can get it to work :-)  GL!

ETA:  Undercover mama tanks are the bomb.  They are like strapless tanks that can clip onto any nursing bra to turn them into a nursing tank. They come in a gazillion colors. Regular nursing tanks weren't supportive enough for me.  You can get them on Amazon, or from undercover mama.com

[GotWine]

I have nursed ds in the car before going into stores plenty of times. He will usually zonk right out and then I put him in the front carrier and put dd in the shopping cart and go. It will buy me more time if I feed him there than at home. Granted, we live at least 20 minutes from any store so I lose a lot of time between feelings just driving places.

[niki]

Chiming to say Undercover Mamas are great and with all the diaper delivery options out there, I would hop on that band wagon stat.

[humpforfree]

I was actually just discussing this with my friend this afternoon. Mine will be 20 months apart. We live 30+ minutes from anywhere, so chances are that the baby will need to nurse while we are out even if it nurses right before we leave. I plan on nursing in the carrier or in the car with the toddler strapped in if I need to.

[zarapipe]

Nurse before you leave and then go. I know it is scary, especially the first time but you feel like you just won a 5k when you get home. It will feel great. Once you do it once it comes so much more naturally to go out again.

[tulips]

We made lots of really quick trips at first where I would nurse her right before we left. I've nursed her in the car before we go in to a location so I don't have to stop mid errand to do so, too.

Our zoo and children's museum have mothers rooms, so I've been able to corral him in a small room with me while I feed her.