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I cant believe we made it to be in the category of nursing "older babies!" Crazy! Never ever thought I'd still be nursing at almost 8 months!

I'm right here with you! Luckily, I've been off work since June, otherwise I don't think we'd have made it this far. At 8.5 months, my son went on a little bottle strike & at his 9 month visit, the pediatrician said it's no biggie as long as I'm cool with reverse cycling. I'm not cool with reverse cycling!!

I'm worried about working again in August. He won't be a year until end of September and I'm not sure I can even pump enough milk anymore, much less handle the stress of pumping at work again. I think I may have to supplement with formula when the time comes, but doing it for 7 weeks at the end seems so depressing.

ETA: @regberadaisy: I definitely want him to self-wean. I still LOVE nursing! I just hate pumping with the fiery passion of a 1,000 suns

It got harder as she got older. I felt the same way you did, she's eating more and more solid foods and now it felt like she didn't need as much breastmilk. I think it was around 9 months that I went down to 2 pumps at work and shortly thereafter, down to 1. I had a decent freezer stash I used and when I didn't pump enough, I gave her formula. I started giving her whole milk a few weeks before her 1st birthday.

My 13 month old is not interested in weaning anytime soon. She nurses in the AM, 2x PM and overnight if she wakes. I know it isn't necessary for her anymore but it feels good to be at this point.

@mewtill: I was soooo happy to stop pumping!!! I think I stopped at 12.5 months?? Pumping in a bathroom those last few months sucked a$$.

@mediagirl: It gives me so much hope to hear that! I feel so silly and I'm beating myself up for being a "quitter" if I end up doing formula from 10.5 months to a year. But it's not quitting! And I can still have a great am/pm nursing relationship. Can I ask how much breastmilk were you giving at 9 months? How much formula did you supplement?

@highwire: ugg, i always hated when my son would do that! i've noticed he even stops drinking and will stop to pinch his bottle nipples. what a wierdo does she get hungry enough at night? we never had sleep under control, so he'd end up chowing down at night and giving my boobs the side-eye during the day.

@regberadaisy: & @mediagirl: Did you mix formula into the milk to make the bottles bigger? Or just a separate bottle of all formula? The pediatrician said he may refuse to drink formula at that age.

@mewtill: M slowed down to taking just 4oz in her bottles around 10 months. I would mix in one bottle and send whole amounts in the other two.

@mamabolt: My DD is 11.5 months old and I'm still sending BM for her to daycare. I'm currently pumping twice at work but want to get down to once- maybe when she's 1? Do you get less milk when you just pump once? I'm only making enough for her for the next day at this point, and want to make sure she has enough so I'm just not sure what to do next.
I'm going to nurse her as long as she wants, too.

DS is 10.5 months and still nursing. I have been soooo tempted to EP since nursing has become painful since becoming prego and so tempted to just switch to formula. But I'm like ok...I've made it this far...just a little bit longer!

@highwire: will she latch if you nurse her when she's really sleepy? We had to start doing that around 7.5 months because Lo was nursing terribly when he was wide awake.

@highwire: omg that makes me so happy to hear! I was seriously thinking that the only reason it could be was because I was pregnant (which I do NOT want right now). So glad to hear I'm not the only one...I think I might try taking magnesium supplements, I read that can help with soreness.

@hilsy85: I've had sore nipples too, but it seems to be receding. I don't know if it was a lazy latch or extra saliva from teething? It never made me think I was pregnant (erm, I didn't know that was a thing :/). But two separate times I had a hard cider that tasted "funny" to me - it was enough for me to buy a pregnancy test. My husband thought I was crazy!

@bamblm: I went through that, too. LO would get fussy sometimes during my period, but I found that I could just nurse her more often and she'd be fine. And always sore nips when she's teething. Ouch. I feel like I have nipples of steel now.

@mrsjazz: ha thats how mine felt in the beginning! I felt like I could drag them over concrete. Now they're being wimpy again!

We are still going strong at 9.5 months! Girl will not take a bottle. I always said I'd stop at a year, but we will see, I guess! She can easily go 4.5-5 hours between sessions if she eats her solids (which she LOVES).

During the day, she will typically nurse when she wakes, before both naps and before bed. I almost had her night weaned and then she started teething again, ugh. It's just so much easier to nurse to get us both back to sleep! She will take the binky if I rock her with it (in the MOTN). Last night she only nursed 2x, so hoping we will get back to just the 12a-1p nursing session soon.

@Highwire: Great idea for a thread! LO turned 9 months old today, and I kind of can't believe I'm still nursing... 6 months was always my goal, and I stuck with it just because of inertia, really... until he reached 8 months and I decided I really wanted to go to a year because that seemed like a good end in sight! The idea of just switching him to cow's milk straight from breastmilk makes me happy.

It's funny, I think the nursing honeymoon is definitely over - there was a time around maybe 3-5 months when nursing was pretty easy. Now he's so distracted no one can even walk into the room or make any noise when he's nursing, or he sits up and looks around. And sometimes he's so fussy he'll yell when I try to get him to eat more. For a little while there I was worried he was self-weaning! Things are better at the moment though.

On work days I nurse when LO wakes up and before he goes to bed, and he gets 3 bottles of pumped milk during the day (around 6-7 oz each). I think I pump close to exactly enough, with 2 pumping sessions at work, one after his morning feed and one right before I go to bed. I have a decent freezer stash going, mostly from the morning and evening pumps over the weekend.

@Hilsy85: Mine are sore too sometimes! And LO doesn't even have teeth yet... definitely worried about what will happen then.