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

[tan32]

with DD1 I breast feed for 4 months. It was a hard struggle and I had no support from her Dad, my milk dried up from stress.
With DS1 I feed him until I had to return to full time work he was 10 months.
DS2 arrived and latched himself on straight away, he seemed to be a natural, I however was a major stress head and was sure I never had enough milk for him. Our first few months were very rocky and he became fussy at the breast. I was sure our journey would end before he reached 6 months.
He is now approaching 18 months and is still a champ at feeding. I sometimes get a bit tired as he still tends to feed at least 5 times a day, if we skip a feed he wakes in the night to catch it up. He is a good eater and has lots of snacks etc through the day as well as his main meals.
I was recently thinking of starting to try and reduce his feeds a bit. I would be happy with a morning and night feed but only time will tell.
I never thought i would be feeding past 12 months.
Breast feeding is our special time and when we bond, he is such an active busy little man that its the only time he is still..

[Gigi]

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

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.

yeh that. snap.

[Heaven]

Awesome thread!! This will be us in a couple of months.

[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.

[*EJ*]

With DS1 my first aim was to get to 3 months and that part was definately the hardest. After i made 3 months i thought WOW, i did it!! Now i'll try make it to 6 months, it was a bit easier to get to there and again i did it!! After that i was happy to just see how things went. Being my first child and not knowing any different i was told by the MCHN that i could cut out the lunch feed, then the night feed (by 12 months) and then by 13 months we were only having the morning feed and my impression of this was that he really wasn't fussed if he had it or not. So i stopped and he never ever asked for it again. He is and always has been a very placid child, just takes things as they come.

With DS2 we have almost been feeding for 10 months and i will do things differently this time (i know differently now), i will not cut out any feeds (except for going back to work 2 days a week, which will effect the lunch feed on those days, only 3 weeks unti i'm back ). I am staying positive that this will work and he will want to continue feeding otherwise. He is a busy boy but i hope i will continue to be able to give him that 5 or 10 min of quiet time with me for many more months yet.

We have never co-slept but having said that out of exhaustion in the early weeks with DS2 there were occasions when he slept with us. Still now if he wakes for a feed and i'm tired i'll lay down and feed him and i enjoy this so much. I never did it with DS1 again being a first time mum and not being confident to do what's not generally advised by the MCHN.

I many ways being i'm more confident to make decisions for me and my child now because i'm a second time mum and also from the expereinces i have read here on BB.

[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).

[Shanti]

Great thread!!

We are fast approaching our goal of breastfeeding for 12 mths!! So thrilled and so proud of DD and I.

We feed to sleep here and plan on doing that for as long as DD needs it because it's easier and it's nice and natural

Look forward to posting in this thread when we reach 12mths! Yeah!! Our next goal is 18mths. Then who knows....!

Well done to all you girls still going past 12mths!

[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.

[Willow]

mistyschell - I've fallen prg twice whilst b'feeding. The first pregnancy sadly ended in m/c at 12 weeks so I can't say how that would have gone.

The second time I continued to feed my son who was 12 months when I fell prg again (even though I suspect during the second and third trimesters there wasn't much milk at all) until his brother was born. We are now tandem feeding

[BellyBelly]

Nope the arm under the mothers head, like a v shape... elbow out, hand behind head at pillow level.

[Winter]

I was planning on bf past 12 months but if DD bites me ONE MORE TIME she's not going to go much further than 9 months!!

[Willow]

Nope the arm under the mothers head, like a v shape... elbow out, hand behind head at pillow level.

We don't co-sleep (DS2 is in his cot next to our bed) but I feed in bed and then pop him back in his cot and that's how I feed in bed too.

[thepixie]

17 months on Saturday and still completely obsessed with the noo-noos.... *sigh* she sticks her hands down my top and actually helps herself, it's embarassing in public!

[Indadhanu]

Ah yeah pixie! If my bra isnt tight enough she'll try to grab hold and pull 'booby' out!! OMG! Chheky bugger! So embarrassing!!!

[Acacia]

DD has learnt to put her hand down my top when she wants boob recently too I hope she doesn't learn to start pulling them out too - Jazz is very cheeky, but so cute, Leasha! She hasn't learnt to pull up my top yet either, but who knows?

[aussienic]

I Bf all of my kids for varying times.. Ds1 was 3 months Ds2 was expressed fed till 10 months

Ds3 was Bf till 21 months.. Was a dream sleeper. Sleeping through by 7 weeks. Generally a happy easy going child.. Took a little while to like solids but was eating at least 2 meals a day by 9 months

DD was Bf till 21 months and 9 days. She was not the greatest sleeper. A failry easy going child as long as she was held or being boobied She also took a while to take to solids too but was also eating well by 9 months.. She was a slow weigh gainer with no weigh gain from 6 months to 19 months. We are close to hitting the 12kg mark with her, I am sure she is there but have to weigh her lol..

Both DS3 and DD weaned themselves.. Ds1 I made a silly decision regarding Bf and stopped.. Ds2 well my milk dried up due to being pg

[Shanti]

I was planning on bf past 12 months but if DD bites me ONE MORE TIME she's not going to go much further than 9 months!!

OMG it KILLS doesn't it?? DD bit me so hard today that she left 4 teeth marks in my nipple and they stayed there for agges!!!! I was so upset with her and took her 'booby' away from her!! It bloody hurts.... she's a biter big time....