Phew. I just hit the 12 month 1 day mark!
LO is still nursing every 3 hours during the day and she wakes 1-2 times at night to nurse.
I plan on going at least another 6 months, but hope to go until she's 2 years old.
Phew. I just hit the 12 month 1 day mark!
LO is still nursing every 3 hours during the day and she wakes 1-2 times at night to nurse.
I plan on going at least another 6 months, but hope to go until she's 2 years old.
persimmon / 1465 posts
I breastfed LO until 8 months. I weaned to kickstart my cycle and also because I was going back to work and pumping was not an option.
kiwi / 525 posts
Wow chopsuey, you're some woman!
With twins, I'm trying to be realistic about the difficulties of ebf. I'd love to get to twelve months, although I'd really only do that if I could get rid of at least one of the night feeds before then! There are limits to how long I'll go without sleep!
Messing aside, I'm just going to take it day by day, at the beginning, and week by week after that. I've read that even six weeks ebf is enough to aid their immunity significantly, six months is fantastic. I've set six months as my (somewhat do-able) goal and twelve as the ultimate. SIL went to 24 months- not for me, sorry. And I do know a woman who kept going til the little lad was just gone FOUR- but she's clearly nuts;)
persimmon / 1465 posts
@aunt pol: I was lucky - no night feeds after 4 weeks and LO was a champ at BF so no pain for me. Good luck with the twins! It'll be tricky but easier than bottles I would think.
grapefruit / 4049 posts
It will be 9 months next week... With no signs of weaning anytime soon
I go back and forth with how much longer I want to go for. She doesn't love bottles at all though, so it makes it difficult at times. She's not the best at eating solids either. We'll see!
kiwi / 525 posts
@cupcakemama: that's what I'm hoping- at least with bf the food is on hand and ready to go all the time! I am hoping to do a little pumping as well, once we get established- it'd be great, say, to pop into MIL's of an afternoon, deposit babas and bottles, and go for a swim! And I'd imagine pumping might make growth spurts a little easier to manage.
hostess / wonderful honeydew / 32460 posts
@NYCaliMama: My LO isn't a great solids eater and she won't take the bottle either! Definitely wanted to quit many times but couldn't. :T 9 months is awesome! I'm taking things day by day. Hoping she starts eating better so I don't have to nurse as often!
persimmon / 1465 posts
@aunt pol: that's basically what I did with pumping. Got a bit of a stash going. Once BF is established make sure you give a bottle regularly so that the LOs will take a bottle.
hostess / wonderful honeydew / 32460 posts
@aunt pol: Wow! I definitely wouldn't have survived this long with twins! My goal was at least 6 months too, but LO stopped taking the bottle and I'm a SAHM so I kept on going.
Yikes! I can't imagine nursing until my LO's 4! Hahah. Weird!
blogger / pomelo / 5400 posts
Nine months and going strong ... however, Baby Y is great with solids (though he's starting to get cranky with purees because he prefers finger foods). I want to go until he hits 1, and after that it depends on what my situation will be (work, possible travel, etc.) If it's possible, we'll go longer. My biggest worry is night weaning, because he nurses right before bed and for night wakings.
GOLD / pomelo / 5167 posts
4 months due to a nursing strike.
I was only feeding from 1 breast and Mavrick felt it wasn't fast enough so he wanted a bottle.
admin / watermelon / 14210 posts
my plan was 1 year (it's been almost 6 months), but who knows what will happen then. i'd love to have my body back, but olive is so addicted to the boob!
honeydew / 7917 posts
I have been exclusively pumping for 11 months, and I am just a month away from reaching my long term goal. I originally started off with a goal of 3 months, which then extended to 6 months. After that I just took it one week at a time. By 9 months, the sound of pumping for another 3 didn't sound too difficult. I am definitely ready to stop.
pomegranate / 3388 posts
I would *love* to make it to a year. I know the WHO recommends 2 years, but I honestly can't see myself going for that long...
grapefruit / 4056 posts
My hope is to breastfeed for a year, then wean when I head back to work.
apricot / 321 posts
I think I did 9 months on the boob, and then used my frozen stash to feed him breastmilk until he was 1 year.
pear / 1764 posts
@chopsuey119: That is awesome girly!!
I am still breastfeeding about 4 times (usually every 4ish hours)/day & once at night usually now that she is teething.
ETA: hit submit too soon, I must be tired! LOL anyways she is 11 months & I plan to begin weaning at 12 months. I have almost 2100 oz of breast milk stored so far & am still pumping so that she can have breast milk as long as possible.
eggplant / 11287 posts
I hope to breastfeed for 18 months!
Baby will be here in six weeks or less... we will see what happens!
pomegranate / 3983 posts
My original goal was 6 months, but now we are 9 months and still going strong, so I'm thinking at least to one year.
hostess / papaya / 10540 posts
I'm going to hit the year mark in a couple of weeks and want to start weaning him by then. We are trying to start a little now and it's not going too well. I'm ready to have my body back!
kiwi / 729 posts
I got to 9 months (always gave the baby some formula but majority was breastmilk). I'm hoping to have a more successful experience with the next baby
clementine / 958 posts
We're at 5 1/2 months, and I'm hoping to make it to a year. LO and I had such a rough time with it for the first 3 months that my goal used to be to just make it one more day. Now that we finally have it working well, I think I'll actually miss it when LO weans.
@yin: I am so impressed by the dedication of long term exclusive pumpers. You're awesome!
pea / 24 posts
18 months with my 1st, 16 months with my 2nd, and so far almost 5 months with my 3rd. Hope to go to 18 months.
grapefruit / 4110 posts
We are 4 weeks shy of 1 year and we plan to nurse until he is 2. He is dairy and soy allergic so we can't wean to whole milk. I work and pump once a day and we nurse 3 times during the day and 2 times at night still. He is quite small still (hasn't doubled his birth weight yet). So I don't think that is too much.
apricot / 384 posts
I made it a year and I was starting to get burned out at the end. We weren't feeding at night anymore but first thing in the morning and before bed and I was pumping at work. She actually weaned very easily which eased any guilt I had!
GOLD / wonderful grape / 20289 posts
I only lasted a week
My mom breastfed me for 18 months though. She says that I loved it so she did what I wanted.... but I think she knew I was her last baby so she wanted to keep me a baby.
hostess / eggplant / 11068 posts
We're at 8 months and I plan to start weaning at 10months as I'm going back to work at 13months. Good job, Chopsuey~
hostess / wonderful grape / 20803 posts
I would love to make it to a year. But, my realistic goal is to make it to 6 months - I'll be back at work, pumping, etc, and I know it will get hard.
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts
Honestly, I'm placing no expectations on myself. I hear about so many people IRL who have issues BFing....but you never hear about it on the interweb so makes me wonder sometimes.
Because of that I don't want to add undue stress to myself.
I would be ECSTATIC if I/my body can make it to 6months.
For some reason I just feel like my body won't produce.
pear / 1837 posts
I went back to work at 6 weeks, and managed to keep DS breastmilk-fed through pumping at work and nursing nights/weekend through about 7 months. At that point, I kept nursing at night and in the morning (he didn't need night feeds by that point) but he got formula during the day. Now at almost 1 (he turns 1 in a week), I just nurse in the mornings, and I'll probably quit that in a few weeks too.
I'd wanted to go longer, but my supply just dwindled to nothing during those at-work pumping sessions, so I gave up. With another LO, I'd like to stay home longer and hope that might allow me to BF longer.
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts
@Lozza:
I do wonder what the statistics are with working moms vs SAHM moms on BFing length.
persimmon / 1135 posts
@regberadaisy: That's so funny that you say you never hear about BF probs online. I feel like that's all I read. It seems like everything I read is "no one tells you how hard it is and it's SO HARD"- which was totally freaking me out before LO came.
LO is 4 weeks today and so far so good! I'm hoping to make it to a year (but who knows... we may go longer or we may run into problems before then).
olive / 69 posts
Im a working mom, and I just hit 13 months - but she's really only taking one feeding a night.
grapefruit / 4671 posts
I'm hoping to do 9 months, but who knows what will happen when LO gets here?
apricot / 464 posts
Just hit one year- YAY! We're nursing 4x a day now and I am cutting back a lot from pumping, but our new goal is 18 months, even if it's just morning/night eventually. We will see, but we will keep it up for awhile as long as it's working for both of us
pear / 1837 posts
@regberadaisy: I think part of it is how you define it. I still nurse once a day, but I definitely don't consider LO "breastfed" anymore. And when people ask "how long did you breastfeed" I'm never sure how to answer- I know how long LO was getting most of his food directly from my boob, I know how long I pumped, and I know how long he was getting only breastMILK thanks to my frozen stash, but "breastfed" could mean any one of those things.
I think that if I was home with LO I could have gone longer because I don't think my supply would have taken the same hit.
GOLD / wonderful pomegranate / 28905 posts
@MegWag:
oh, I didn't mean in terms of that. I hear a lot that it's hard work, etc. But most moms you hear about how they are able to (milk comes in) doesn't stop and they are able to go for at least 6 months etc.
A lot of the moms I know IRL they are just not producing enough even at the beginning or quit after a month or two.
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