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

[Artechim]

I BF DS until he was 18 months, then I forced him to stop. I had always planned to BF until he self-weaned, but I was 4 months pregnant and he was waking about 6 times every night for a comfort feed. And I didn't even have any milk - he was asking for 'more empties' lol
He was a co-sleeper because there is not really any other way to survive a baby that wakes every 1-2 hours for over a year!

DD will most likely BF until she self weans. I don't think she will want to do it for an extended time though because she just isn't that into it iykwim. She is a cot sleeper, but when she wakes in the night I bring her into bed. Works for us.

[Olive]

i fed DD1 til 18 months when i weaned her as i didnt want to feed when pregnant, i had bad m/s when pregnant with her so i felt i wanted to wean her rather than be forced to because i felt sick etc..hope that made sense was hard though she wasnt ready but i was.
DD2 is 10 months and will feed til she self weans, happy to go as long as possible!

[Laranna]

I fed DS until 14.5 months when he self weaned - I think because I was pregnant (about 3 months at that stage). I'm sooooo glad I got that far as in the early days, it was a real struggle and we had to comp feed for a little bit. I was grasping at anything and everything to keep the BF'ing relationship going as long as possible. We did it too and I'm glad I perservered with it. I had no intention of stopping any time soon and was looking forward to tandem feeding, but he chose to stop himself. He now just points to my boobies and says "Milk" and then "baby" lol

[Gigi]

the length of our bf-ing journey so far is 36 months.

we have had many ups and downs along the way, never dreamt we would make it to three weeks, let alone three years.

so many things went wrong for us during labour and delivery (things outside my control), breastfeeding was one thing i was prepared to give up on without a fight. I felt and still do feel, it is my gift to my child.

i remember joining a natural parenting group in my city, when pregnant, and meeting a few mums who were bf-ing their 3yo's. It was the first time i had been exposed to that and i thought "ok for them, but i doubt i could do that". At the time, i was really more concerned with "what if my body doesn't produce milk when i have my baby?" - so i was greatly relieved when i DID produce milk, and my nb DID manage to suck. such a relief.

four months to establish bf-ing, many times when i would tell myself, "i'm feeding her for the next 24 hours, beyond that, i have no clue". So we have come a long way.

At 19 months old, we went into a PND clinic for a fortnight. I was bullied by a variety of health professionals (paed dietician, 3 midwives, psychologist etc) to take her feeds from 10 to 2 a day. She cried for booby and i was beside myself. THey enforced controlled crying and put her in a "nursery" far away from my room. Supposedly monitored in the nurses office, but i found out the volume was turned down, so actually, NOT monitored.

The supposed outcome of the withheld breastfeeds never happened, she still wasn't interested in solids. After two days of her crying and starving herself, i made up an excuse to leave the PND clinic and never went back.

we went back to booby on request, which turned out to be about six feeds a day (until the clinic, i hadn't really ever kept count before, but they looked at me like i had 3 heads, when i said we fed on request and i didn't know the number). Their protocol only covered bf-ing up to six months, so they didn't know what to do with us at all.

So, although both traumatised, we gradually got over the PND clinic experience and got back to normal booby feeding. (my DD still looked healthy).

Around 2.5yrs i went thru a crisis of confidence, due to the comments and looks i was getting at my DD's childcare, when i picked her up in the afternoon. My child requested a feed immediately she saw me, and would become distressed if asked to wait for a feed at home. So i fed her at the ccc. I copped value judgements esp from workers about that.

My child is three now (Nov b'day). SHe no longer wants a bf when i collect her from CC, we're at a new centre, and i haven't copped any comments there, even at the start, when i did feed on their couch, when collecting my child.

Strangely enough, the days she is in CC, my milk is not drying up. SHe feeds before and after CC. the other days, she feeds during the day. I'm a bit surprised the CC hasn't interfered with the milk supply, but am not complaining.

THe longer i have bf her, the better we have both become at this skill (each of us have learnt so much), it's gotten easier. I still feed her in public but have a better bf-ing wardrobe now, than i did in the beginning, which makes me feel more confident. buying bf-ing clothing was quite a mindfield, took me ages to get what i was after.

If i had another child, i would love to experiemnt with slings/carriers more than i did, to work out how to bf in a sling. Will never get that chance, but i think about it.

Belly belly has been great to me, all the way thru this unfinished as yet journey.

i would especially like to thank Barb Glare for monitoring all the bf-ing threads and adding so much bf-ing knowledge and wisdom to everyone who posts.

It's so helpful to hear what other women do and have done - when you're going thru an issue yourself, to all the wonderful women who have responded to my posts, too many to mention but all your words have helped me so much.