Extended breastfeeding

Hey first both of mine kind of cut back a bit once they got to one anyway. Neither ever had a bottle but they didn't really need one if I went away for the night. I didn't have any problems giving them the odd drink of cows milk in a cup if my boobs weren't available.

I started wearing underwires again when Caprece was about 8 months, I am quite small in that area and my milk settled down quite fast second time around.

Thanks for your answers to questions. I"m pretty sure that I'm going to continue until he wants to stop but it is nice to see how other mum make it work. I work at home looking after children so going back to work isn't a problem if he does continue to want day feeds. My only concern was having to be around to feed him all the time as my DH plans on taking me away for a day or two when DS is 1year and 10day (our anniversary), but it sounds like he'd be okay just drinking from a cup for a day or two. While you are away do you express to keep your supply up or is it so well established that you don't need to?

Thanks for the question first, and for the answers ladies! I'm hoping to keep at least the moprning/nights feeds going as long as we're both happy, so it's good to have some tips.

Re: going away, I haven't had that luxury yet (!) but Natalie went on a nursing strike a month or so ago for 4 days (so I may as well have not been here)....I just expressed at her usual feeding times, and although I did find that my supply had dropped off when she finally started feeding again, it was back to normal after a couple of days. If you're only 'missing' 2 or 3 feeds a day, you still might want to express for your comfort, and just be prepared it might take a couple of days to get your supply back to normal.

Edited by blondy

first I'm in exactly the same boat, I like breastfeeding because I like doing things I'm good at iygwim, but have never had that feeling of loving it either. People who say it's more for the mother than the baby don't know what they're talking about (although I'd be lying if I said the weight loss benefits and prospect of holding off AF that little bit longer don't appeal!). I'm with you, I plan on stopping when DS is ready, whenever that might be - which is certainly not in the immediately forseeable future here.

Oh it's so great to read this forum, I am currently on another forum being heckled from all sides for saying mothers should be able to feed as long as the relationship of bf is working for them and their baby. In fact the WHO recommends 2 years plus and the world average is 4.5 years.

Anyways we are only at 10 months but I intend to go for as long as my wee bundle of magic needs it. In saying that I am sure we will come to a natural cessation somewhere between 1-4 years. I was also 'resistant' to the idea of extended breastfeeding. i thought it was for crazies. Funny how things change!

This is a nice website with some info

http://breastfeed-for-how-long.blogspot.com/

Good luck!!! And lots a hugs of strength.

I have a question. Did you let your baby just drop feeds by themselves or did you stop the feeds. I want to keep BFing after he's one but I think I only want to do morning and night. At present he has 7am (big feed) 11am (he varies how much he takes) 1500 (usually small feed) 640 bed time feed is average length feed.

Already if I am out he is happy to forgo one of his day feeds (11 or 1500) which is handy if its just not convenant. I don't mind him taking those feeds but I don't want to be having him ask me for them if we are out and about.

I have always had to actively drop a feed, as Ella would always ask for it. I usually just tried offering her milk in a cup instead or distracting her.

weaning her, wasn't as hard as I thought.It was a lot easier because she understood when i told her 'mummys milk all gone'. she still asks for it every now and then, but then when I remind her she says 'Ok mummy'. also giving her a milo before bed instead of the feed was a great idea and she now loves milo and gets all excited about it.

Since I started this thread in the first place I thought I would just bump to let you know how we're doing with breastfeeding here. JJ is 15 months now and we're showing no signs of stopping. I started thinking I'd try the "don't offer, don't refuse" method but I was just doing an awful lot of not refusing so now I'm not even thinking about weaning yet.

I'm studying to be a teacher which meant I had two 8 week blocks of being in school full time, so JJ was in daycare full time then. The first practicum I spent all of my break time expressing in the staff toilets and got so exhausted, the second practicum I dropped JJ's day feeds so I fed him morning and night and he had formula at daycare. That finished 3 weeks ago now and JJ went right back to feeding 5-6 times a day, my supply seemed to adjust pretty much instantly, it's amaxing how it happens once you've learned to trust your body huh?

My DH got over it - it helps that I have made a few friends through this site who are still BFing their bubbas the same age (although the mums in my coffee group all dropped off many months ago). We went away to Queenstown to visit family a couple of months ago and DH even commented how handy it was that I was still BFing, we could be in the middle of a ski field and if JJ wanted a drink it was right there, "none of that faffing about with bottles" he said.

My only challenge at the moment is, I'm not sure if it's a growth spurt or what, but this last week JJ's gone from sleeping through or waking for a quick feed overnight (which I used to be able to almost sleepwalk through) to wanting to nurse for a good hour at about 2 or 3am It's not that he's hungry, it's not that he can't self settle, he just gets really angry with me when I take him off the boob (he will eventually come off himself but it takes ages!). So I'm awake for an hour or so feeding him and getting hit and scratched and my hair pulled into the bargain Any ideas?

lol I have no idea how I missed it either Amby! I guess I haven't ventured into the toddler forum very often, but am definitely in that age bracket now!

Lauren is still having 5-6 feeds a day, and a couple during the night as well, she's always been a really frequent feeder and is showing no signs of wanting to give it up. At least we're past the massive growth spurts and hourly feeds!

Has JJ stopped those hour long feeds in the wee hours of the morning? Am finding Lauren is doing that at the moment 3-4 nights a week and it's driving me nuts! Did you find a solution or did he just grow out of it? I have a feeling she's not going to sleep through the night for some time and I don't mind those middle of the night feeds - as you say, I just about sleep walk through them too - but the hour long awakeness is pretty exhausting.

I just wanted to pop in and say

I've been breastfeeding for 17 months today! I never thought I'd be doing it this long, but what else would I do with all this milk?!

I know that 17 months isn't really classed as extended breastfeeding, but it's twice as long as everybody I know in RL. So this is my own little celebration with the only people that won't think I'm a crazy hippy

Poop, had to edit to get the numbers right.

Edited by Flutterby