Thanks everyone for adding your thoughts, I too love the noises!

I thought about writing this thread when Felix was in hospital last time, the benifits of breastfeeding him were enormous, and I thought to myself -thank god we didn't give up!!

I thought of 4 more reasons:
-when you are a breastfeeding mum in hospital with your child, they give you meals too
-also if your child needs surgery the amount of time for fasting is 3-4 hrs less than children who are not breastfed..lets hope not many of you expereince that
- it helps me relax and sleep too, love those breastfeeding hormones
- also my hairdresser told me that your hair doesn't fall out as much while breastfeeding, because the hormones prevent it from doing this! To someone with thin hair..another advantage!

it is a really beautiful thing to continue feeding your child, but yes as Kerrie said Australian societies views towards feeding a child who is walking and talking are quite behind.

Some family friends say to me "Are you still feeding him?" and he is only 11mths old! I figure better prepare them for ahead, and say "yes I'm planning on feeding him till he's 2!" I think if I say it now I'll be stronger when it comes time.

I think going to places like the ABA helped make me feel like what I was planning to do was normal, the variety of backgrounds of the women in the ABA who continue feeding their children show that this is not an "alternative" practice but one that many women and children do for a variety of reasons.

Jillian I think your story about your sons is amazing and you are a great testiment to women who had a hard time first baby and then had a great expereince second time around. One of the women in my mother's group is pregnant again and asked my advice about trying breastfeeding the second time around. I felt so happy that perhaps all my persistance showed someone that there was positives in continuing to breastfeed.