How long did you breastfeed for?

[Mom2Hope]

I have a local lactation consultant I can see...I don't know about any groups...I still try and latch him without the shield...but if he gets to frustrated I still want him to eat and will use the shield...if he wont latch properly to the shield then I have to give the bottle of pumped milk...ultimately I just want him healthy and full...but I would really love for BF to be successful...I feel so bad when he is screaming because I want him to latch and he doesn't want to...I know I need to have him practice more but I feel like it is something I am doing wrong...

 

[Casey3]

We are at almost 24 months and still going strong! He's an absolute boobie addict and I can't see him stopping any time soon

 

[kerrie24]

I have a local lactation consultant I can see...I don't know about any groups...I still try and latch him without the shield...but if he gets to frustrated I still want him to eat and will use the shield...if he wont latch properly to the shield then I have to give the bottle of pumped milk...ultimately I just want him healthy and full...but I would really love for BF to be successful...I feel so bad when he is screaming because I want him to latch and he doesn't want to...I know I need to have him practice more but I feel like it is something I am doing wrong...

Really without seeing you I can only guess,have you tried different holds? Google breastfeeding rugby hold and try that.
Try taking baby in the bath with you when he isnt hungry and you are both relaxed,he might successfully latch in there.You are trying your best and that is ultimately all you can do,dont be so hard on yourself! Also when baby grows a bit he might find it easier,so dont give up on your goal!

 

[Mom2Hope]

thanks kerri...we have tried a few different poses...I do want to try taking him in the bath with me though...the lactation consultant just mentioned that saying he would be more relaxed and so would I and to just let him decide what he wants to do so it isn't so stressful...I think we will try that tonight for our bath time instead of using his little bath tub...

 

[Sarah125]

We are at 4.5 months and I wanted to get to 6 months. I can't imagine stopping then now as it feels so soon!

Good luck with your baby whatever you decide

 

[staralfur]

My LO still nurses several times a day at 20 months. I have no doubt she'll still be nursing at her 2nd birthday. Though quite honestly I think I'll start to encourage her to wean down to one feed a day after that. I don't mind doing one feed for however long she wants, but the nursing throughout the day is a bit tiresome at this point!

Before my LO was born I said I'd stop at 6 months. Once 6 months neared I said I'd stop at year... now I know better than to give it a timeframe.

 

[SarahBear]

Violet is only 13 months and I will let her wean naturally. I do plan to get pregnant this summer though, which may or may not affect weaning.

 

[Itsychik]

I see you've already gotten a bunch of great responses but thought I would add my 2 cents as well.

First of all, I absolutely second the recommendation to get some Lansinoh Lanolin nipple cream. That stuff works miracles.

I received the advice when I was pregnant with my first to work on 'prepping' my nipples before my DS was born. So from about 30 weeks I would rub them a little roughly with a wash cloth anytime I took a shower and put a bit of the Lanolin cream on afterwards or whenever they got dry. I don't know if this really helped or not, but when I started bf'ing I never once had pain or cracked/dry/bleeding nipples. I've started doing this prepping already now that I'm pregnant again.

Even though I didn't have any pain, I had a low supply, and really struggled for months to bf (which was really frustrating). It took 5 days for my milk to come in and then the first week seemed to go great, but for no discernible reason my supply dropped and my LO wasn't gaining or was losing weight every week. We tried almost everything (with help of La Leche League, Lactation consultants, midwife, doctor, etc) and couldn't get an increase, so eventually started combi-feeding when LO was about 4 weeks old. It took me about 9 weeks to feel like I was finally starting to 'get the hang of it'. Every day in the first two months was a struggle, and my goal was often just to make it to the end of the week... then the month... then till I went back to work (when LO was 12 weeks old)... then to 6 months... but I was never ready to stop.

We continued combi-feeding until LO was 8 months when my supply dwindled so it wasn't even sufficient for one feed per day. And it took a couple of weeks for me to come to terms with that as I didn't feel ready to stop.

With this new LO I would really love to be able to EBF and my goal is to make it to a year. Keeping my fingers crossed there are no supply issues this time!