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@Mrs. Lion: I feel like this is going to be so dependent on each person's experience nursing or EPing. I have friends who love, love, love nursing and are still nursing their toddlers....but as an outsider (me, who EPd till LO was 13 months), it seems like so much work--their toddlers are still boob monsters with no end in sight, they still nurse al; day long, not just at set times like you would with bottle feeding, and now at this age nursing is more comfort than anything else anyway, so they have to deal with that when weaning.

I don't know...would love to hear PPs responses on this.

Nursing my older baby/toddler was waaaay easier than nursing her as a young baby. We got into a rough schedule where she ate every 2.5-3.5 hours (just so happened that way, I didn't make her!). It was easy and she actually refused a bottle anyway, so it made the decision for me. She had no issues weaning whatsoever but we may be a rare case? I weaned slowly and we were done by 15.5 months.

My second takes a bottle relatively easily but I still primarily nurse just because it's faster for me.

@Mrs. Lion: Oh. Yea.... A toddler definitely does change things up a bit. haha!

Not having to clean pump parts and bottles is huge to me. I work full time and I hated pumping at work... so on the weekends, I never ever ever pumped or bottle fed. Nursing was just such a nice fall back when LO would get fussy. I was terrified the first time I had to take a plane ride with her after she was weaned.

Nursing gets easier and shorter as they get older. Before you know it you will be able to walk around with the little one attached to your boob as you chase the older one. Not dealing with the pump, the bottles and all is a time saver. Also I know you mentioned it's not an issue, but it does help keep supply up, and helps when they are uncomfortable with teething, flights, that sort of thing.

For me, nursing has always just been so much easier. Baby upset? Give him a boob. Baby having trouble falling asleep? Give him a boob. Baby hungry? Give him a boob. Don't have to wait to warm up milk, don't have to pump, don't have to wash parts, etc. It's just easier. Plus now with a toddler, it's a nice break. I'll take Logan into the nursery while Hubs watches Xander and I'll get some quiet time bonding with my baby. Obviously this is dependent on someone watching the toddler though!

Another thing I didn't see anyone mention, so I thought I would, was antibodies. When you are nursing, if your baby gets sick, your body will start making antibodies to fight their illness, even if you yourself aren't sick!

After 4 months, breastfeeding actually becomes much quicker than bottle feeding/pumping. There's less to clean up as well since you aren't cleaning out bottles, pump parts, etc. all the time. I found breastfeeding much more convenient once LO became more efficient. It would take 30 minutes to pump what I needed and then another 15-20 to feed him when I could breastfeed him in 10 minutes.

At almost 9 months I'd say:
- not worrying about bottles and packing enough/ storing enough when we're on the go
- super easy to calm fussy baby
- I love the snuggles

Downsides:
- she has a massive mama preference, which I think is because nursing comforts her
- tough to leave her ( i don't pump)
- unpredictable for when she'll be hungry

For me pros outweigh cons.

We breastfed until 19 months (but with lots of cow's milk in sippy cups starting at 12 months) and I agree with others that after the initial difficult first few months breastfeeding is so much easier. I didn't care about nursing in public once we "got good" at nursing/no longer had difficulties latching so I stopped using a cover eventually. It's wonderful to not have to wash bottles and pump parts constantly. I will warn that we had difficulty with bottle refusal around months 2-4 (started daycare with pumped milk at 4 months) so I'd encourage some bottle feeding mixed in even if you choose to breastfeed. One more thing to note...you mention not knowing how much the kid is taking in, that's theoretically a downside but also kiddo should regulate itself accordingly so you don't really NEED to know, you just want to. A related downside to bottle feeding is that you have to guess how much milk to prepare in the bottle and risk preparing too much/too little.

It's so personal but I didn't love nursing until after LO was 6 months old. It got easier and easier and better and better as she got older.

@Mrs. Lion: my Lo definitely got much more predictable as she got older!

@Mrs. Lion: i always timed her nursing sessions for that reason. If she nursed for 12 minutes or more then i was pretty confident that it was a full feed and she was full. Less than 10, she probably has a burp or if she fell asleep i would wake her up. But as they get older and are more efficient, it was much more obvious whether she was done (unlatch and look around, wouldn't go back on) or not (unlatch and look around but go back on easy).

I've only been nursing for 8 weeks, and introduced a bottle at 4 weeks, now LO takes one bottle per day since I want her to be used to it when she goes to daycare at 7 months. But in my limited experience, I love not having to worry at all about how many ounces she's getting, or pumping the right amount for her appetite, I just let her dictate when to start and when to stop and it's super easy. No worrying about regulating my supply since she does that for me. No worrying about taking bottles along when we go places, especially on vacation. I like knowing LO is getting the appropriate milk for her for the same time of day when she's eating. And when she's going through a fussy period when she wants a million short feeds all day long, I can respond to that easily without having to rewarm a bottle over and over again. I can't imagine what night feedings would be like if I had to go get a bottle out of the fridge and warm it up, rather than just scoop LO up into bed next to me. So I'm a fan of breastfeeding more so than pumping and bottlefeeding, though it is nice to have DH give her that one bottle in the evening so I don't have to feed her at her fussiest moment.