How many have or are "Extended/Sustained breastfeeding past 12 months" on BB?

[Oorki Galoorki]

27 months here although i could say 29months as dd has had the odd feed since being weaned

[Fleur]

I fed DS2 to 14mths. We co-slept too, it just all worked for us.
DD2 has been a different kettle of fish altogether!!

[{sarah}]

I had no defined amount of time to breastfeed, because I couldn't feed Zander I just wanted to be able to. Once we got to six months there was just no question about continuing, it's just what I did. At 12 months I tried to introduce cow's milk as well but she wasn't interested. By about 14 months I was ready to get my body back & stop feeding. It took about a month to gently wean off the one bedtime feed she was having. J had her last feed the night before my sister's wedding, the night of the wedding she was with her grandmother & I just decided there was no point sending a bottle so we stopped there.

J slept in her cot in her room from day one, well other than the times we tried the hammock (which she hated). I never fed in bed, I felt far more comfortable keeping her more settled quietly moving from cot to rocking chair & back rather than going between rooms etc. I don't disagree with cosleeping, but it's just something we don't do.

[Willow]

I fed DD until 16 months. I was prg with #2 and that sadly ended in m/c at 12 weeks. I was devastated and felt like my b'feeding may have had something to do with our loss (I know now that's not true but I was just feeling sooooo bad at the time that I wasn't thinking rationally) I ended up back in hospital the week after my D&C with some mysterious 'infection' that no one ever really diagnosed and while I was in hospital I stopped feeding DD. It was just too much for me being so ill. I still feel immensely sad (and sometimes guilty) about the way our b'feeding ended Back then I thought 16 months was a fantastic effort (and yes, it is) no one I knew had ever fed that long. But then I discovered BB and the 2 year 'benchmark'.

I am still feeding DS1, he was 2 last month. He fed all through my pregnancy even though I'm sure for a long while I didn't actually have any milk. It was amazing to me. He was happy so we just kept going. We are now tandem feeding with his brother I had it in my head that I wanted to get to 2, now that we're here, I have no intention of stopping just yet. He hasn't had night feeds since 10 months and now only has one feed a day before his nap. He is fine though if I am not around to feed him. I think 3 would be my absolute cut off point, he will be going to preschool then and for me, that's long enough.

DS2 is 4 months and going well after a bit of a rocky start My plan is to get to at least 2 and by then I may be ready to wean. I will have been feeding for the better part of 7 years (I think) by then

[Kazmar]

I fed Annabelle till she was 15months. She weaned herself. Wanted it less and less until not at all within about a month
Ill feed Lucy the same amount of time, if not a bit longer I never knew how natural it would feel and I wish every woman had my same experience with bfing.

Where we live has the lowest stats for bfing,I think I read in Victoria! So thats really very sad

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

I fed Liebling for about 16 months. By the end, he was just playing about so we were both glad to give up. He just didn't want to sit/lie still for a feed. I was aiming to feed until about 2-3, just because the idea of me feeding a walking, talking baby was freaking my family out. But feeding a child I was sending to a nursery school wasn't going down too well with me (school starts just after age 3 in the UK).

As for sleep - we had another issue here; DS was intolerant of dairy. He wasn't feeding overnight from ~10m (his choice: he'd just have a very quick sip then want to play, so I stopped offering and he wasn't fussed). When we switched from cow to goat for his dairy, he slept through.

We co-slept initially: DS had his moses basket then cot to start the night, then into bed when he woke. We still co-sleep now if DS wants to come into our bed.

[Mildez]

I fed DD1 for 2yrs6months and weaned her due to family pressure. With DD2 I weaned her at 2yrs due to not been able to concieve again and have regretted it so so much. Stupid Drs said they wouldn't consider me even ttc whilst she was BF except I knew I was definately ovulating and having regular cycles. Almost 12months on I am still no closer to having another baby so I feel I weaned my gorgeous DD for no reason at all except for the sake of my medical notes. Part of me feels sad that I did wean both my DD's.

[~Kim~]

Despite a tough start, DD fed until 17 months. Initially I was just aiming for another day at a time, but then 12 months.

I remember her last date and time of feed and didn't realise it would be the last.

Like so many others I had much external feedback about what I should be doing, and I have a feeling it impacted, but ultimatley DD weaned herself.

The Little Guy is still going strong with what feels like a million feeds a day, so I doubt he'll give up anytime soon, but seeing as he's my last....I'm not fussed.

Great thread Leash.

[turtleschell]

Hey I intend to bf till 2 yrs, but I want to start trying for a new child when DD is 12 months old.. How can you get pregnant when you are BFing? And can you still BF whilst pregnant??

[Heaven]

Kelly- with the cosleeping pictures you saw did you mean mum had her arm under bubs head?? I hear lots of ppl say this is how they sleep but I never do, I get a dead arm! lol. And you'd think it would hurt their neck! Obviously not. I have my arm straight out and DD is sort of under my arm, down the bed a bit (mouth in line with boob of course, lol).

[BellyBelly]

You sure can... people tandem feed too. But also some women (like me) find their milk dries up during pregnancy too. Every woman has different hormone levels and some get their cycle back very quickly, some don't so it's impossible to tell when you'll ovulate again. Obviously it happens two weeks (approx) before your period. So if you get a period, you can start charting or using OPK's etc.

[YoYo]

DS was 15.5 months when I 'encouraged' his weaning.

I wasn't really that clued on about the breastfeeding 'benchmarks' so to speak and thought I'd just copy what my Mum did and wean him at 6 months. Well that didn't work so decided to keep on trucking. I was happy and so was he.

Sleeping was pretty bad so I started co-sleeping with him....although did it in another room away from DH. After a good while of doing that, I decided that I needed to be back in my own bed and closer to DH, so thought I would wean his day feeds first....that was easy, then had to cut down his two night feeds....where I was just on tap for him. I did one feed at a time and I had then decided that once the night feeding was over it was time for a big boy bed for him.

I vividly remember our last feed...not realising at the time that it was the last I am totally happy with the outcome. He stopped feeding, then I took the cot rails off his toddler bed and he started sleeping in his own room. He got some space, and so did I!

I loved out BFing journey and I'm looking forward to it with the next one, however long it continues. I never had any pressure from anyone to stop feeding (not to my face anyway!)

[Marlene]

I'm still feeding Jack and he is almost 20 months. Yaayyyyyy. My first two I didn't really BF at all, and my third I BF till about 8 months. So I am very proud of myself.

I have been asked many times when I am going to wean him. I just say I'm not and that he will wean when he is ready.
He usually only has or two feeds in 24 hours. He only started sleeping through at about 18 months, and will still occasionally wake for a BF very early morning (4:30am) and then go back to bed.
Sometimes he'll have a sooky day when he will want to be on the boob more often. I let him, but it does get annoying sometimes. My DH thinks it's "weird", but I don't give a damn!!

[Bun]

I always intended to BF if I was able to but never had any strict plan about how long I would feed for. DD took to it and LOVED boobies so well that we were still going strong at 12 months. She was still having around 4 feeds a day and really wasn't that interested in solids that much. I then had our GP and MCHN pressure me to reduce her feeds because she would then feel hungrier and would eat more. I started reducing her feeds, eventually down to one a day but it never helped with her eating at all! They made me feel like I had been doing the wrong thing by still feeding so often, but the end result was a child that went from always being on or above the 70th percentile in weight to one that eventually dropped right down to the 2nd! When she was 15 1/2 months old I got pg again and she weaned herself. I really didn't have much milk at that stage due to only giving one feed a day and when I got pg again I think all my milk dried up. I would have loved to have fed her longer and feel a little angry at my health care providers as now I believe their advice was wrong. Next time I am going to feed as long as and as often as I feel like it!

[AnyDream]

Before I started BFing I had this notion embedded in my brain that I would be pregnant for 9 months and then I would BF for 9 months and that was a perfectly reasonable timetable.

WELL...I think it took exactly 1 and a half coffee mornings at ABA (used to be called Nursing Mothers back then) - which I joined more for support since we had just moved to a new area - to throw that notion out. I read a lot, talked to other mums alot, and became very passionate about breastfeeding. Which is good because establishing BFing with DD1 was very very hard - the hospy that I was at gave all sorts of terrible, conflicting, bad advice - but the support and info I had through ABA meant I knew what I needed to do - even if it was a bit unconventional (i used to use a dummy to get DD sucking before whipping it out and popping my BB in LOL) to get going properly.

I adored BFing. I had a very traumatic birth and was frequently quite dissociated from my body for months afterwards - but BFing was the one constant that anchored me to my baby and allowed me to pour my love out physically. I was able to continue to BF until DD was nearly 18 months, when she self-weaned with minimal encouragement from me.

With DD2, I was determined to BF as long as possible, even well past the 18 mth mark, but it wasn't to be. I didn't enjoy the physical sensation of feeding as much this time round - in hindsight most of the pain and problems were probably due to a large breast tumour which wasn't diagnosed until DD weaned at 16 mths and the extent of the lump became apparent. This time I actively encouraged the weaning because I was having surgery - I was sad at the time but later very relieved because it would've been heartbreaking to have to wean because of the cancer treatment. We have continued to have special cuddles in the armchair where I always fed her, but it makes me a bit sad that she doesn't seem to remember BFing like DD1 did.

[BellyBelly]

I went to the ABA hot milk conference a few years ago and someone gave a presenatation based on a study (I think from the UK) which showed that cosleepers tend to be breastfeeders. Cosleeping makes infant led feeding nice and easy and there are the benefits to cosleeping on top of that too. There were no bottlefed cosleeping pairs. They also showed images of women sleeping, they formed a specific 'C' shape around their baby... facing the baby, mother's bottom arm under her head... it was amazing to see.

Mine coslept the whole time they were breastfed which was infant led. First weaned at two, second at three (on his third birthday). We told my second he was a big boy now he was three and that meant no more boos lol. It was very hard, he was angry at me and went to my ex-husband for comfort for a few weeks, but it was done.

I loved the whole experience and I will do the same with any future children.