Breastfeeding moms~ a place to chat

[heart of peace]

Well, I figured I'd throw some reasons why extending breastfeeding has been a huge blessing for my son and our family just off the top of my head:

- when he got sick with the coxsackie virus (hand-foot-mouth disease) just past 2, for a week he couldn't eat or drink much of anything. He nursed nearly like a newborn (even his bowel movements were just like a newborns). I was counting my blessings that week. Not to mention each time he came down with a cold, a viral infection or a fever - chances were I was already exposed to it and my body was producing antibodies for it that were being transferred through my milk.

- where else does one have a natural way to clean out an infection in little one's eye, clear out a nostril that is stuffed, etc (breastmilk has natural healing ingredients for cuts and things like this).

- There have been times that life was so chaotic all around us but because he was still nursing, he was able to find some semblance of normal and calm.

- I can't even begin to describe how connected I feel to him, I look at him and am able to read his thoughts so keenly. For a person who suffered through ppd and didn't fully attach to my son until 9 months, I know breastfeeding him helped me make such a connection with him.

I could go on and on....lol I wish more people in our society were open to at least a child respected weaning. It is very lonely for me, even in this thread. I don't think we have any regular posters in this thread who are weaning a 3+ year old. I dont' know one person offline that nursed past 2.5 yrs old.

 

[Thankful4HIM]

msdahl.. do you have a suggestion for like getting my almost 2 yr to sleep thru the night w/o having to nurse.. thats the main reason why i want to stop by her 2nd birthday cuz I am just NOT getting enough sleep because she nurses 2-4 times a night and im a VERY light sleeper, so when she gets fidgety at 6 am for more than 6 mins it completely wakes me up...

 

[dubadoo]

Thankful4Him-MsDahl seems to have great information. That must be really tiring being up most of the evening. My daughter is 10 months old and she only nurses 2 times per evening. I however now lay her down in the bed next to me and she attaches and I can at least half fall asleep. I know that is not the best practice , but I would be drinking 5 pots of coffee instead of 1 if I didn't get a somewhat good nights sleep.

 

[Robinsegg]

Thankful4Him-MsDahl seems to have great information. That must be really tiring being up most of the evening. My daughter is 10 months old and she only nurses 2 times per evening. I however now lay her down in the bed next to me and she attaches and I can at least half fall asleep. I know that is not the best practice , but I would be drinking 5 pots of coffee instead of 1 if I didn't get a somewhat good nights sleep.

Actually, a "family bed" practice isn't the worst thing you can do! It works well for many families!
Rachel

 

[RedTulipMom]

Anna is now 21.5 mos and we are still nursing strong, she is teething and she nurses alot. my breasts still havent healed up, i am in pain EVERY time i nurse for 3-4 weeks now and its hard, i keep hoping i will heal, i have been using the lanolin, but with her constantly nursing i am healing awful slowly i guess. I am so used to it being painful that its becomng the norm. I really want to let her wean in her own time, if possible. She is soooo NOT READY to wean. i do distract her and offer her snacks and juice more often so she doesnt nurse as often during the day as she used to, but still a couple times a day and quite a few times at night..i am used to losing sleep at this point and wouldnt know what a full nights sleep is. I just can't bring myself to wean her, hopefully some day it won't cause pain.

 

[RedTulipMom]

Thankful4Him-MsDahl seems to have great information. That must be really tiring being up most of the evening. My daughter is 10 months old and she only nurses 2 times per evening. I however now lay her down in the bed next to me and she attaches and I can at least half fall asleep. I know that is not the best practice , but I would be drinking 5 pots of coffee instead of 1 if I didn't get a somewhat good nights sleep.

Actually having her in bed next to you is the best thing Anna has been in my bed since birth and still is ..she is 21.5 mos old. My son luke slept with me till age 3. When my daughter was 10 mos she probably only nursed 2 x's a night too, but as she got older she nursed MORE at night. she nurses 3-4 times a night usually, but like you said atleast you can "half-sleep" while your nursing in the middle of the night.

 

[heart of peace]

msdahl.. do you have a suggestion for like getting my almost 2 yr to sleep thru the night w/o having to nurse.. thats the main reason why i want to stop by her 2nd birthday cuz I am just NOT getting enough sleep because she nurses 2-4 times a night and im a VERY light sleeper, so when she gets fidgety at 6 am for more than 6 mins it completely wakes me up...

I was very much like RTM, I just trudged through the really hard nights where I couldn't sleep much - I was never able to commit to nightweaning. That is very important to keep in mind - if you are not committed, your child will pick up on it and you won't get the results you hope for. Anyway, Dr. Jay Gordon has a wonderful, respectful way of approaching night weaning. I've heard only good things from those who have implemented his method and it helped the mother continue nursing and eventually allowing the child to make the final decision when nursing ended completely. If you've been nursing and responding to your baby's cries and providing lots of cuddles and affection, chances are your child feels loved and safe. Crying during a nightweaning at this point is very likely due to frustration at a change in schedule. According to this method, your child should cry less and less and you don't leave your child alone to cry - you stay there comforting your child in other ways.

I do remember that there were times I was just done with a nursing session during the night (usually the 4 am one would drive me bananas as he would nurse for a LONG time and that is what would wake me up). On those nights I remember my son crying and being very upset but it was the lesser of two evils for me, I needed my sleep in order to be a calm and together mom during the day and so in this case, my needs trumped his at that moment. Breastfeeding is a relationship and it has to be mutual after a certain point. That's another good reason why I am happy we have extended bf, it has taught my son the concept of 'compromise' and 'sharing' early on.

Here's the link and a snippet:

I love the family bed, child-led weaning and cuddling all through the first, second, third year or more if it's working well and if the family is doing well. Don't let anyone convince you that this is a harmful choice or that there will be "no way" to get him out of your bed if you don't do it now. Don't believe anyone who says that babies who cuddle and nurse all night long "never" learn to self soothe or become independent. This is simply not true but it sells books and the myths stay in our culture.

Some moms just don't want to do this after some months or years and there should be a third choice to the dichotomy of crying it out or giving in to all-night nursing. Again, I support the family bed and frequent night nursing for a long time and even attempt to pull some parents along "just a little farther," but I often have to switch tacks and support and help families with difficult choices.

 

[Sign Of The Fish Burger]

Isabella has been nursing exclusively for 12 weeks as of yesterday!!! I'm so proud of our BFing achievements. I'm also still pumping several times a day for a woman who needs donor milk for her son who is 2 weeks older than Isabella.

 

[Thankful4HIM]

Actually, she is in my bed lol... I've allowed all my children to sleep in my bed as children. I have my almost 2 yr old and my 3 1/2 yr old in bed with me. So, I get a lot of the half sleep thing... and like you said the 4am is the longest and wakes you up.. that's what she does also... Thanks for the suggestion though!!

 

[heart of peace]

Did you check out his site? What do you think about that method? Do you think it could work for you?

 

[Thankful4HIM]

yeah, just read most of it.... i think i can try to give it a go.. i just don't look frwd to the crying and stuff lol

 

[Singin4Him]

It took over two years for my breasts to return to normal after my daughter was 100% weaned.

I'm curious, what are we considering "normal"...it's been about a year and a half since my son's been weaned and mine are never going to be the same again. A push up bra is a must for me these days!

 

[Thankful4HIM]

well i gave it a try last night worked better than i expected!!! yay

 

[chava]

I'm curious, what are we considering "normal"...it's been about a year and a half since my son's been weaned and mine are never going to be the same again. A push up bra is a must for me these days!

I've always been small so my husband is happy with the change but I'm with you on the push up bra.

 

[PegasusOnFire]

I went from big to bigger, still at the bigger and am thinking when this one comes I will be even bigger, not looking forward to that.

I got some good news the other day at LLL. A friend of mine is going to stop pumping, not nursing, in 4 months and in one month is giving me one of her two Pump in style pumps then when she is done with the other one she is going to give me that one as well. Now before you say anything I have all the tubes and parts that will be touching me already, due to my hospital stay when Mary was 5.5 months old. I am so excited, that is almost $600 worth of equipment that I will use alot that I won't have to pay for.

 

[heart of peace]

well i gave it a try last night worked better than i expected!!! yay

That's great So, what happened?

 

[Thankful4HIM]

When she would wake, I would nurse for about 7 mins and stop... she would get a little restless and go back to sleep! Only been nursing twice from midnight to 7am!!!! YAY!!!! Tonight is the last night I think for the nursing for a few mins.. and then I think the next 3 nights are well, I dont remember lol....I think no nursing.. something like that

 

[Hadassah]

Well, we're nearing that 9 month mark and no signs of stopping or slowing...!

Jonathan's latch has improved again, so I'm guessing that it's when his teeth are coming in the most that his latch gets very lazy and he bites a lot - without warning. I look and look for signs, but there never are any.

He has started to say "Gone!" or "Gone-gone" when he has depleted the milk on one side while nursing... which helps...

He's signing when he wants to eat, and sometimes signing potty... but I have to really pay attention as to which he wants. He gets them mixed up sometimes.

 

[heart of peace]

I'm not going to count my chickies before they hatch buuuuuut my son has not nursed in 3 consecutive days!!!!

 

[Thankful4HIM]

yay! lol