Breastfeeding Support - 6 months and beyond!

[TigerLady]

I just state things in a very matter of fact way... for example:

Them: Are you still BFing?
Me: Yes, of course.
Them: BOTH of them?
Me: Yes, of course.
Them: Don't you think it is time to stop with Otter?
Me: Nope. He's not ready yet and neither am I.
Them: When will you stop?
Me: When we are ready. There is loads of evidence that it is highly beneficial until they are at least 2, so we've got plenty of time.
Them: Is DK on solids yet?
Me: Nope. Not until she is 6 months.
Them: Doesn't she want to nurse all the time?
Me: Yep, but that is normal.

As long as I say those types of things with confidence, they pretty much shut up. I just say it with such confidence in my being right that they actually strat to question if they are wrong to question me.

I do the same with DH. He doesn't usually give me trouble about it. Last night was the first time. We were discussing a retirement party for his mom that is later this month. I told him I got the sitter until 8pm. He said the awards probably wouldn't be done by then. I told him tough! I am going home at 8 pm to put Otter to bed. He said the sitter could do that. I said, NO WAY. I have put him to bed every night of his life and he still nurses at bedtime. He said, well, have the sitter put him to bed and that will be that (implying I could use that night to wean him! ) I said absolutely NOT! I am not ready yet and neither is Otter. That pretty much shut him up.

Cleckner, I wasn't around.... what did Emma do to her poor hand? It looks like it has healed really well!

 

[cleckner04]

When people ask me if I'm still breastfeeding I just say I plan on getting to at LEAST 2. I don't really explain any further. Im lucky in a way because family and friends are all back home so I don't have to deal with the 20 questions. I have a feeling if I go back home to visit I'll be bombarded with the 'you're crazy' looks.

DH is good thankfully. He knows I am always reading books and on here asking for advice or reading advice. So he pretty much just takes what I say as fact. He did ask one night when I planned on stopping. But he quickly backtracked and said he is just curious and that he isn't pushing it. Poor guy.


As for Emma's hand, I was jogging on the treadmill and Emma came up behind me and shoved her hand underneath and the belt rubbed it down into a 3rd degree burn. I felt like complete shit about it and told DH this is what I get for trying to lose weight. But she's been a real trooper about it.

 

[TigerLady]

Aww, poor Emma!

Otter has a scar on his tummy that I feel guilty for every time I see it. I was cutting the steristrips back from his surgery site when he was about 4 weeks old (like I had been told to) and cut a chunk of skin off him!!! He still has a little oval scar from that above his surgery scar. :sigh: I feel like a terrible mom every time I see it.

 

[hivechild]

Poor Emma with her hand but it looks like it's healing fantastically! I'm sure being able to have cuddles and boobie with mummy certainly helped make the whole thing easier. I can't imagine comforting Ronan when he's in a lot of pain without nursing him. It makes me sad to even think about it!

Anyway, for those of you who've been bfing for far longer than me, how often on average were they feeding between 10-12 months or so? Ronan still nurses 3-4 times a day and then sometimes at night, so on average 4-6 times a day but other than first and last feed of the day, most of the time I usually have to offer. I've been signing and saying milk since he was about 4-5 months so he knows what it means and used to come for some boobie every time I offered but nowadays a lot of the time he'll acknowledge me asking if he wants it with a grin and then go back to doing whatever he was doing before. He just doesn't often come to me and clearly ask for it. It makes me a little sad because he used to be such a boobaholic but now he shows more enthusiasm for a bowl of blueberries during the day!

I know that it's a normal progression, and over the course of the next year I hope to wean him down to first/and or last feeds of the day but right now I'm confused and not wanting to push it either way. I've followed his lead from the day he was born and these days he seems far more interested in real food most days.

Anyway, I'm just rambling and I'm not sure what I'm even worried about, but I feel a bit lost with that big 'one year' milestone fast approaching. I always said I wanted to make it at least that far, but I never gave it a lot of thought beyond that and just figured 'I'll deal with it when we get there,' and what do you know, here we are!

 

[littlepne]

I've been getting "when are you stopping" comments, mainly from my mum. She told me that eventually I won't be enough for her, but surely that's why you introduce solids?!

I still use the "why pay for something I can produce for free" but I might start with the benefits. Luckily DH is very supportive, he's mentioned formula but only when he thinks I'm struggling but he thinks bf is great and he's the one who tells everyone about the benefits and sharing our immune system etc. I'm not very assertive though - I listen to advice, smile and then tend to ignore it

I suppose I'll get these comments more and more. Whenever it gets me down I tell myself she's only a baby for such a short time and I don't want to look back and regret spending time worrying about things, and as hivechild said, it's that "I'll deal with it when it happens" thing.

 

[Dragonfly]

nasty burns there on Emma, I burnt ,myself loads in past and been in pain but never as bad as that , she would be in agony .

tesco took money out today, eejits. lol thought i got away with it. but they packed the 6 mugs i ordered in one massive box was stupid.


no one asked me how long I feed for any more by my stage they give up.

 

[lynnikins]

hive, your lucky with only that many EJ insists upone 5 feeds minimum during the day but thankfully we have weaned him off the night feeds now so we all get a decent night but if a feed is late in the day boy do i hear about it alot from him and i need him to cut back caus with our trip to NZ in 6 wks where i'll be playing bridesmaid for my sister and cant BF in the dresses shes picked and then to Aus and coming back here id prefer if he was on 3 maybe 4 feeds a day

 

[littlepne]

Now we're weaning, is green poo still a milk issue? Only ever had the odd one before but it's been all her dirty nappies for 2 days now, she's become quite fussy on the boob though - I think there's more exciting things to do now!

 

[Shiv]

Now we're weaning, is green poo still a milk issue? Only ever had the odd one before but it's been all her dirty nappies for 2 days now, she's become quite fussy on the boob though - I think there's more exciting things to do now!

sounds like she might be teething hon

 

[littlepne]

Ahh could be, that could explain some of her moods as well! Thanks

 

[Kaybee]

Cleckner - to you and Emma. Her hand looked very painful. What a wee trooper she is. It looks like its healing very well.

When I'm at work K doesn't bother about the lack of boobies, however, at the weekend or when I'm off work he pops on and off them all day. He still wakes 2-3 times during the night for a feed too. Thankfully we co-sleep or I'm not sure how I'd function. I'm not sure how I manage as it is I seem to be getting questions more about if we still co-sleep rather than about bf although one recently said 'oh, he'll be at school' when I said yes, I still feed him myself. I just said that I didn't plan on feeding him until then and that put an end to that. I'm sure I read on here somewhere to say something along the lines of well (s)he'll be weaned before he/she leaves home/ is engaged Thankfully DH is very supportive about BF and hasn't said a word about stopping. It must be difficult if you don't have a supportive partner whilst being a breast feeding mum.

We moved into our new house yesterday. Woke up this morning and the boiler wasn't working - drop in water pressure or something. DH got it fixed...my hero! Although the place on started heating up when I had to go out in the freezing cold to work I have a weekend of unpacking ahead. When we were packing K was 'helping' by sitting in the suitcases or taking stuff out the boxes we were packing. Whats the bets he starts helping again by putting stuff back in boxes....fun and games!

 

[Eve]

I get asked the odd time and I just say when we are ready we will stop. Glad I don't deal with too many ignorant people... I would probably just chuck Norris style it and kick em in the face

 

[Eve]

Awe, cute Kaybee! Hope you enjoy your new place and I think Kaiden makes a great helper

 

[Miss_Bump]

Thanks ladies I'll remember some of them when people ask

Evie is still on her reflux meds. I was hoping she would be prescribed something a little stronger but we have to wait to see the specialist at the hospital in feb for that!

Eve, how is kayleighs pneumonia? Hope she is better now

Finally got some more cloth delivered today. Ordered at the start of December from China and took ages I actually forgot lol
xx

 

[Eve]

K is doing good! She is done her antibiotics and isn't coughing or boogery at all anymore. She seemed to respond well to the penicillin I was worried as J is allergic so we will have to wait and see still as it wasn't until J's 4th time on it that he had a reaction, but next time he could have went into anaphylactic shock So we were lucky to notice the minor rash when we did. K is back to herself though, down for a nap now. She has been doing great with her naps. Usually around 11am she goes down and sleeps around 1.5 hours, sometimes 2. Then she has a small nap in the late afternoon, around 3:30-4pm until around 4:30-5pm and down around 9pm. I am going to try and cut out afternoon and have her in bed around 7pm though, like she used to do... hoping it helps as OH and I like to have some time together in the evening before bed.

 

[cleckner04]

Popping in real fast to say Emma went 4.5 hours in her own bed last night!!! I actually fell asleep without her too. The past few nights I've been staying up just waiting for her to come to me.

 

[lynnikins]

or something shes eaten lol banana can caus black bits in poo lol peas spinnich anything green can caus it all to go green lol watch out for corn too

 

[TigerLady]

Poor Emma with her hand but it looks like it's healing fantastically! I'm sure being able to have cuddles and boobie with mummy certainly helped make the whole thing easier. I can't imagine comforting Ronan when he's in a lot of pain without nursing him. It makes me sad to even think about it!

Anyway, for those of you who've been bfing for far longer than me, how often on average were they feeding between 10-12 months or so? Ronan still nurses 3-4 times a day and then sometimes at night, so on average 4-6 times a day but other than first and last feed of the day, most of the time I usually have to offer. I've been signing and saying milk since he was about 4-5 months so he knows what it means and used to come for some boobie every time I offered but nowadays a lot of the time he'll acknowledge me asking if he wants it with a grin and then go back to doing whatever he was doing before. He just doesn't often come to me and clearly ask for it. It makes me a little sad because he used to be such a boobaholic but now he shows more enthusiasm for a bowl of blueberries during the day!

I know that it's a normal progression, and over the course of the next year I hope to wean him down to first/and or last feeds of the day but right now I'm confused and not wanting to push it either way. I've followed his lead from the day he was born and these days he seems far more interested in real food most days.

Anyway, I'm just rambling and I'm not sure what I'm even worried about, but I feel a bit lost with that big 'one year' milestone fast approaching. I always said I wanted to make it at least that far, but I never gave it a lot of thought beyond that and just figured 'I'll deal with it when we get there,' and what do you know, here we are!

Otter dropped them really fast on his own between 7-10 months. Went from 8-10 per day to 5 per day. This is also the time he started STTN (10 months). After that I started "don't offer, don't refuse" for the two bottles of EBM he got at daycare and he dropped those really well. Then he was at 3 (morning, noon, bedtime) for quite a while. He stayed there until about 15 months. At that point, I was tandem nursing and ready for him to drop a bit more if he was ready, too. So, I did don't offer, don't refuse with the noon one and he dropped that no problem. He still asked for the morning one for a couple of more weeks, then dropped that one.

Since then he has been at just the bedtime feed. I haven't tried "don't offer, don't refuse" with that one because I don't feel either of us are ready for that yet.

Just go with your gut. If he seems happy to drop a few feeds, that will be fine. It doesn't mean he will self wean completely anytime soon.

 

[Eve]

I have to clean up and I really don't want to... so sleepy... can't seem to catch up on sleep at all! I feel like I could use a whole weekend of just sleeping! lol

 

[lynnikins]

i have to go out lol i just spent the afternoon napping and then cleaning this place as we are all out all day tomorrow and im out overnight till 4am so i'll really be sleeping this time tomorrow night lol and then we have a big day sunday as well