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14 months. Mothers milk tea and pumping after each feeding to get my supply up. Determination and luck. It was the most physically and emotionally difficult time for me. I totally get why it's not for everyone.

Still nursing at 14 months. I SAH so maybe doesn't apply I know you WOH but he was put skin to skin/nursing ASAP in the hospital, put to le boob every time possible in the early days, never limited nursing sessions in the early days, baby wore and slept nearby when he was itty bitty so my prolactin and all that jazz was on high. Nursed on demand until he was 4 months when we initiated a loose schedule.

Met with an LC the first week. Had DH on board that this was important and he supported me in other ways since he didn't/couldn't feed!

We're at 9 months and still nursing. Things that I think helped: breastfeeding class, newborn support group run by a lactation consultant, nursed on demand for about 4 months, used a nipple shield, persistence...

We're 9.5 months into it and it's going well. We had a tough go at the beginning and the only thing that got us this far was my amazing LC. She was the third one I saw and without her I for sure would have switched to formula.

We're almost at 9 months and we've had an awesome time breast feeding so far. I'll be honest, I really do think we've just been lucky. I still nurse on demand, which is about every 4 hours now but with maybe one MOTN feeding. I started pumping twice a day at 6 weeks and introduced a bottle of pumped milk around that time as well once a day, so she has always easily taken both breast and bottle.

It definitely is easier for some people than others.

We are at 6 months and going strong, I plan/hope to BF to a year and gradually wean, hopefully on her terms.

Things that I think helped were lots of skin to skin, BF on demand for months, loads of long nursing sessions (she was and sometimes still is a big comfort nurser, which is sort of like pumping after, right?), eating a lot and drinking tons of water, and luck.

My sister also told me a lot about it so I was prepared and committed. I also live in a BF friendly community I think-- I have never gotten weird looks for nursing in public, everyone I know at least started out trying to, and I had family support (no one saying 'oh just let me give her a bottle of formula').

Finally, being SAHM I think makes it a lot easier-- pumping is really hard and I have a ton of respect for moms who EP or WOH and pump for a year or more.

I really love BFing and am in no rush to end it.

If by successful you mean EBF, then I wasn't, but if by successful you mean what I qualify as successful, very! We had to supplement for the first month and then we EBFed until 6 months when I went back to work. My supply couldn't keep up and we've been supplementing a bottle or two a day, but we are at 8 months and still have a nursing relationship that is mutually enjoyable. I am very proud of that, even if it wasn't what I had hoped for (EBF). Determination was the major factor in that success.

@Foodnerd81: I feel like bfing is the lazy man's night feeding! A lot of times now that she's older I nurse her side lying and night and just half snooze. I can't imagine how tired I would be getting up, preparing a bottle, feeding, and going back to sleep after a full wake-up!

13 months and going strong. lots of skin to skin in the beginning, going on the EASY routine and waking her up if it had been more than 3 hours during the day for a while, nursing overnight until last week (!!), going to BFing support classes just to hear other people's experiences and troubles, being a little crazy about pumping when i worked at weddings, reading kelly mom and threads on HB about what i was going through!

lil over 13 months. not sure what helped. i guess it wasn't "bad" so i just kept up with it for the year i was planning to. then, i was just weaning and fully weaned by 13.5 months. i was also supplementing at least a bottle a day and pumping.

With my first, it was SO HARD. I ended up pumping around 4 months bc he just did not want to latch and I seemed to have supply issues. With my 2nd, its been a completely different story. But honestly, it was like that from the beginning...seemed like my 2nd just knew he loved to eat.

But to keep things going well:

-nursed on demand
-drank lots of water
-0-3 months, nursed 3-4x's a night
-4-5.5 months, nursed 1-2x's a night
-6 months (we are here now), STTN but now i'm thinking I should add a pumping session to keep supply up

I can't really think of much other than that. My supply seems to be enough for LO right now so i'm crossing my fingers.

I nursed for 15 months. He weaned because he was sick and too congested to properly latch on. I wasn't pumping and I think that my supply was already low (we were only nursing once a day at the end) so when he was feeling better I was dried up.

Honestly, I think it was mostly luck. He latched on right away and my milk came in before we left the hospital. The hospital's CLC saw us, and after watching him nurse for a while only gave suggestions on how to interest him in nursing if he was too tired. I had no raw nipples and the only pain was from engorgement.

I do think nursing on demand helped maintain my supply, even when it was every half an hour for weeks on end. I drank tons and tons of water, ate a lot of oatmeal, and co-bedded (which I think really helped my supply, because he could constantly and easily nurse).

But really, just luck. I barely did anything to prepare...I bought The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding but didn't finish it and pinned a few different holds. I didn't take a class beforehand or see a LC (outside of the hospital). I didn't need to take any supplements.

It was emotionally hard--worrying that I wasn't making enough because he wanted to constantly cluster-nurse. And that my body really belonged to him for a long time. But no physical problems or allergies to deal with, no supply issues. It was exceedingly easy for us...for which I am very aware of how lucky I am and very grateful.

2 years and I had a terrible control issue. I did mother's milk tea (which I actually liked) and I nursed on demand whenever I could. And he reverse cycled so we co-slept and he could snack all night long so I didn't have to worry as much about daytime feeds when I was working. But mostly since he was MSPI I knew what I ate and could control that food for him.

My son is nearly 1 year and I think a lot has to do with determination and stubbornness on my behalf - pumping while working full time stinks and when my supply has tanked I've spent many nights staying up extra late just to pump enough for his bottles the next day. Nursing often on the weekends and during the night has probably helped too. But mostly it probably was just that he took well to nursing after a briefly rocky start and that my supply had been maintained without too much work. I'm very happy that we've made it as far as we have.

18 months, but we got off to a rough start due to jaundice and a lazy latch.

From ~36 hours old I started pumping since he got sent to the NICU. I was able to nurse for 15 minutes each side, then pumped for 15 minutes after while he was supplemented with a bottle of either formula or pumped milk. We continued to do at least one bottle feeding a day, which reinforced the habit and gave me a break.

We started off using a shield, but then weaned off of it (first during the day, eventually at night). Using the shield and profuse amounts of nipple cream helped a lot, I only had some soreness.

I met with a lactation consultant every couple days for the first 3 weeks, and then weekly until 7 weeks when things got better. She was worth her weight in gold, I always felt better after meeting with her.

All things I hope to repeat with #2, I really wouldn't change much about our experience (other than hopefully avoiding NICU time). I am glad it happened, as stressful as it was, it opened my mind and set me on a path that I have no doubt helped our success.

I'm still feeding my wee booby addict at sixteen months and she shows no signs of weaning anytime soon.

In the early days, we had a tonne of support from my midwife and her colleague who delivered Miss A and cared for me post partum. These two wonderful ladies talked me down from the ledge on many an occasion and really helped me to push through all our early difficulties.

I also had my Mum and my aunt who both breastfed their children and have continued to support me as A got older. Just the other day my Mum told me that she thinks A is the luckiest baby in the world

I found some great online resources (Kellymom, the LLL support forums, Nurshable and the WIO "tribe") and chose to stay away from websites / books / places that didn't jive with my aims and parenting philosophies.

I had free access to two excellent IBCLC's (yay publicly funded healthcare!) who helped diagnose and correct A's tongue and lip ties.

I have continued to do night feedings and bedshare on a part-time basis.

I have a very strong streak of stubbornness and pigheaded-ness!

11+ months (still nursing)

- LUCK!
- Determination
- Nursing every 2 hours the first couple weeks, on demand after
- Visiting LCs a couple times
- Pumping after nursing sessions (still do to this day)
- Dreamfeeds longer than were necessary
- Good pumping options at work (work full-time out of home since 12 weeks)

26 months.
Nursing often from the start, before colostrum comes in. I started at every 2-3 hours with 10-30 min a side. But for both of them they started asking for more the second day so we did even more often, which feels like a ton, but it's just to get a good supply established, which will decrease headaches in the future.

Having a good nursing book, I had Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, to go to when problems come up. But also not over-analyzing feeding too much if there's enough wet and poopy diapers.

Having baby next to the bed. I would have collapsed trying to get up and down to feed at night and been a lot more likely to give up.

@Adira: Ditto on luck here also! I'm the first in my family to BF, and DS was an IUGR baby so he was immediately put on formula from the moment he was born until I made enough milk for him. Even then, he was bottle fed until 6 weeks when all of the sudden, he latched on like he had been since birth and has been nursing ever since! We're at 7 months and going strong!!

I think pumping every 3 hours helped maintain my milk supply, but when we started nursing, my milk supply increased!

We are 8 mos. and still feeding on demand frequently. What happened was that an awful nurse made me feel insecure like the baby wasn't getting enough and so I went wild pumping and bfing and ended up with milk out the wazoo. I also ate 5000 calories a day at first... now I eat 3000. I was also tenacious!

Other things include:
Support from DH
Not caring if anyone saw me nurse (took a little while and never thought I would public nurse but this was huge to my success... so we could go places and not be so stressed and feeling confident has really helped. DH's support on public nursing really helped too and I hope more women do it and I think that will up bfing success and also help PPD because women won't feel they have to hide or be trapped at home...)
Healthy diet! No "dieting..." honestly not trying to lose weight helped my supply, I think.
Not going more than 2 hours at first without nursing and pumping.
DH getting up with me for support and WASHING PUMP PARTS!
Having my ob and gp tell me that my clogs were a good problem to have!
Feeding on demand throughout the night.