Concidering LCing....little nervous cause I got a 10 month old. SHe nurses very often around the clock. She doesn't eat much solids either. Is Atkins safe? Should I go SBD?

Wow. I don't think I would try any kind of diet until your baby is sleeping through the night. You're still sleep deprived and it will make it much harder overall. A baby her age (if in good health) could nurse every 3 hours during the day and still sleep 11-12 hours at night. My kids were sleeping 8 hours per night at 10 weeks and 12 hours per night at 16 weeks. I really feel for you, and I don't know how you're able to function on a daily basis. Please don't be offended. I just marvel when people think that getting up mutiple times in the middle of the night for a year or 2 to nurse is normal when you have a baby. It isn't--it's not good for you...or her. Babies her age need extended periods of unbroken sleep at night for optimum mood, learning AND feeding. A well-rested baby feeds better at each feeding and not as often, ensuring the hindmilk reaches her at each feeding. I'm not judging you, I'm concerned for your extended lack of sleep.

All babies are different, some sleep from early on, and some wake up often at night. As long as you can cope (keeping the baby close by for easy feeding makes a big difference) both are fine, and both are normal.

As far as Atkins goes, it's fine. There is no reason why you can't nurse and LC at the same time. Ketones don't pass from your blood supply to your breastmilk.

ElleH, I'm delighted you had babies that sleep a lot, but babies that don't sleep are normal, and probably more common than ones that sleep. For various reasons, breastmilk supply tends to be better during the night, so many babies like sleeping close to their mothers and nursing frequently at night. As long as you have a system that means you can do this safely, it's normal and healthy.

Helen,

Not all of my babies liked to sleep. In fact, only one of them did, the 3rd. He seemed to LOVE being put to bed! It was wonderful for the 3rd one to be so easy. But the other 2, not so easy. The 2nd one, my daughter, now she was a challenge! She hated to be put to bed and fought it with everything she had, from the first day home. But, still, with my gentle persistance, she responded the exact same way as the easy one...with unbroken sleep. It's the parent that teaches a child how and when to sleep by her loving guidance, b/c she knows what's best for the baby in the long-run. Sleep is a skill that can be learned by any baby with guidance. I had to laugh when you assumed I "got lucky" not once, not twice, but 3 times with babies that love to sleep! Surely you must know how unlikely that is! No one gets lucky 3 times!

I always get the same "you gotta be kidding" speech whenver I try to tell someone it doesn't have to be that way, so I'm pretty used to it. But alas, this is not the topic of this thread, so I'll leave it alone. I can certainly understand how irritating it could be to hear that someone didn't go thru that.

Well, I absolutly oppose crying it out. I'm assuming some form of crying was involved in your 'gentle persistance'. I'm one of the only moms I knew who was well rested even at 1 or 2 weeks postpartum. We co-sleep. Baby wakes, I latch her on and we both drift back off to sleep. It's lovely. I'm not tired and not a tear is shed. My DD trusts me to meet her needs 24/7 and I do. She's my happiest baby yet and my baby I co-slept longest with and we pratice attatchment parenting in every area. If you weren't implying CIO, I'm truly sorry. I just marvel that people think all babies should be sleeping through the night at even less than half her age and it's ok to let them cry to achieve this. This is my 3rd, none have cried it out. My oldest slept through by two and my middle by 17 months. When she no longer needs to nurse at night, she wont. Right now I'm just going to enjoy her late night snuggles. My other kids woke up once a night to eat and only napped once at this age, she naps twice. If that's cause she wakes more at night, so be it. I enjoy having twice a day to tidy up and get things ready for when DH comes home. Sorry if it sounded snarky, I just get upset when people imply my baby should be sleeping more and I should be doing something different, like ignoring my child's cries, her only way of communicating her needs with me.

oh and I'm not surprised to hear that "it doesn't have to be this way". I hear it all the time on main stream boards. I feel bad for all the babies left to cry. Whether it's for 5 minutes or all night. I find it funny that everyone who CIO's says we have to teach our kids to sleep. They slept in the womb, they slept when they got out. My babies sleep now. I nurse for reasons other than food and I'm happy to give her that anywhere, anytime.

One thing to bear in mind no matter what form of night parenting you follow: newborn babies need to feed at least 10-12 times every 24 hours. If they send a long time asleep at night, they are going to spend any awful lot of time on the breast during the day.

Also, once there is a regular break of 4-6 hours without nursing (like when the baby sleeps through the night) breastfeeding is not a reliable contraceptive any longer.

Well, I'm sure there was some crying (after all, babies are babies, and they do cry sometimes), but nothing extended. I found ways to make bedtime a pleasant experience (like making sure they were tired and would welcome sleep, cuddles and kisses and songs, and comfort if needed to settle in). They are in their beds, safe and secure, and my husband and I are in our marriage bed. I kinda like HIS late-night snuggles!!

As long as we're both settled that we're caring for our children according to God's will for us, then it really doesn't matter what anyone else thinks, right? My children are also happy, well-adjusted and know that I'll meet their needs, too. So please don't feel sorry for them. I don't feel sorry for your children. Both our children have mothers who love them and would anything to ensure their well-being, doing what we believe is right.

My main concern is that there are mothers out there who think that being up several times a night comes with the territory, and they ARE NOT happy about it. They're tired, and they're resentful. And resentment isn't good for the family.

All the best in your weight loss! It's a good goal to be carrying less weight around. I hope I can get there, too.

I've been thinking all day and I wanted to apologize for sort of going off.

I guess I should define my co-sleeping. She goes to sleep in her crib and when she wakes, after we are in bed, then I bring her in. SOmetimes it's not til 2 or 3 in the morning. So I'm still getting DH's snuggles and my baby didn't needlessly cry.

/but yes, good luck to you though! Loosing weight can be a struggle.

Oh and the comment of fertility returning. This I love. No AF since Jan 4 '03 I never get it til I wean because I nurse frequently. i also only nurse typically for short times so it's not tying down at all. Heck, I'm nursing now

I sure did love that cuddling in bed with a baby. When mine were very little, I would feed them at my early bedtime in bed and fall asleep with them. Mark would give them a bottle (I pumped for that) and put them in their beds later. Then when they woke for the 5 am-ish feeding, I'd do it in bed and fall asleep again with them until it was time to start the day. It sort of naturally ended when they started sleeping through the night. It was a very sweet time.

I've never experienced any middle of the night crying (except when they woke for feeding so it was brief), or walking the floor with a wide awake baby or any of that stuff. They all just starting sleeping longer and longer after that last 10-11 pm feeding, until, one day at about 10 weeks of age, it was all night.

I sure did love that cuddling in bed with a baby. After the 5 am-ish feeding, I would keep them in bed and we'd snooze until it was time to get up. It naturally ended when they started sleeping through the night. It was a very sweet time.

I'm glad you enjoyed it

82sara, I did Atkins OWL while I was nursing. Well, I did maintenance for the first 3 months because I became very bitchy if I didn't get a certain amount of carbs .
After that I switched to OWL which I did right up till dd was weaned at 14 months. Only after she was done nursing did I worry about doing Induction.

atiaran- What happened for you once you did induction. Did you still have a big loose?

I lost pretty steadily just doing OWL. I had about 5 lbs left when we were done, and about half of it came off during Induction. I also had a really hard time sticking to Induction, so I switched to South Beach and lost about 8 lbs during Phase 1. I was doing Phase 2 when I found out I was pregnant this time. For whatever reason after my first pregnancy, if I go too low carb, my body seems to go into a starvation mode and I don't lose. When I go a little higher, the weight comes off again but slowly.

I think I'll be doing SBD, starting after the next grocery shop it's great you got it almost all off before your next preg.