Breastfeeding - how long

[Erika]

How long have you been breastfeeding or did you breastfeed?

If you didn't breastfeed for long, why not? and would you have liked to have gone longer?

[Meshelle]

Arrianne - 9 months, Michael - 6 months, Brooklyn - 3 months, Natasha - 8 months, Jonathan - 20 months.
With the older kids, I would have nursed longer but with working full time I found it hard to keep up with their demands. With Natasha my appendix had ruptured and I had tons of poisons in my system and by the time that was done she wasn't interested anymore. Jonathan has been my longest nurser and even though he has tried to nurse a few times lately, I think we are done. :( It makes me sad to admit this, but I think my milk is all gone. He was going 2-3 days between nursing and it just diminished away. He wanted to nurse yesterday, but I know it was just for comfort. I felt so bad to have to redirect him to something else. :(

[Kristi]

I breastfed Dylan only for a month and he never took to it and was not gaining weight so the hospital pretty much told me I had to put him on Formula. I was only 19 at the time so I was not informed on all that. I do wish I had BF him longer. I did continue to pump for him got 3 months beyond that but it got to be too much.

I breastfed Caleb until he was 17 months old. I am pretty Happy with that amount of time.

There are days I wish I would have BF Isabella/ But oh well

[Beka]

6 weeks 6 days and counting- hoping to go to a year as i ff the others for 12 months

[Victoria]

Patrick 15 months
Bryce 27 months
Anna 24 months

Im good with how it all turned out.

[Renita]

Reanna - 6 months
Danae - 10 months

I had to go back to work each time when they were 3 months, so I did okay considering the circumstances. Danae was tough to get on the bottle. She definitely tested our nanny! She finally took a bottle at 10 months. She also reverse cycled on me....sleep all day, nurse ALL night. I enjoyed nursing both and even though they've been in some form of childcare since they were both 3 months...they have done amazingly well with minimal colds/coughs.

[Erika]

We are almost at the 6 month mark (25 weeks today!). Sasha had to have a few formula top-ups when she was in SCBU but they were medically indicated and since then she hasn't had a drop.

I plan on feeding her at least a year though hopefully longer. It will depend on my work situation then. I will hopefully express for her then as I don't intend giving her formula.

[Lori]

I breastfed Thomas until he was about 25 months old. The weaning was mostly parent-initiated, but he wasn't particularly interested in nursing most of the time when he stopped. It was definitely a good time for us to stop, because I was getting to the point where I wanted my body back and was resenting his requests to nurse. Having ended where we did, I have very positive feelings about our nursing experience and hope to nurse any future children for around 2 years, as well, but if we'd kept going much longer, I think I would have had much more negative feelings about it and would be reluctant to try extended breastfeeding again.

Thomas understands now that he nursed when he was a baby, and he thinks it's neat. Sometimes he jokes about wanting to drink my milk, but then he says he drank it all up. So I don't think he has any bitter feelings about my having weaned him before he was ready, and I think he sort of remembers that he nursed and has good memories about that.

[Cyndi]

Madi and Alex I nursed for 6 months. I was working full time and just couldn't keep up, so I don't feel too bad about stopping then.

Ethan I only nursed 3 months. I do regret quitting so soon with him.

Luke is almost 9 months and going strong. We'll go to a year and then see.

[Kristen]

Joshua-nearly 12 months. I had to quit b/c I was pg and really, really ill.

Lisey-12 months, then I quit and had my tonsils out. I wasn't able to eat properly for weeks after that(lost 15 lbs) so it's good I stopped!

Sonia-15 months, and then I got pg that very week. :rolleyes

Z-almost 12 months so far...we'll see how things go. She still can't manage a cup or bottle, so a lot will depend on her learnin how to do that. :giggle

[Christine]

Morgan - 19 months. Kailyn was conceived almost immediately after she finally weaned.

Kailyn - 15 months. I was 6 months pregnant and I got to that "don't touch me" stage so I weaned her.

Nicole - 15 months. Also pregnant, although newly pregnant. Honestly I had a chance to go away for the first time EVER without kids and I didn't want to worry about Dave having to feed Nicole so we weaned.

Danielle - 38 months! I never thought I would nurse that long but it seemed right and she weaned very gradually. She was nursing every now and then when she'd climb into bed with me in the morning. One morning she said "Mommy, no juice is going in my mouth!" and that was that.

[LinMarie]

Between my two boys I nursed for 2 weeks shy of 5 years. I did get a short break of a couple months between Deklan weaning and Corbin's birth, but I don't really count it 'cause I was pregnant the entire time! :giggle Here' the breakdown between kids...

Deklan weaned at 26 months. I was pregnant with Corbin, and while we were steering him towards weaning, it was done on his terms. I distinctly remember the last time he nursed. He had been doing the "couple of minutes to fall asleep" thing for about a week, but then on a Saturday afternoon he crawled up into the rocking chair with me and nursed for a long time. I somehow knew that was going to be it, so I made sure to just enjoy him and hold his little hands until he was done. And I was right...that was it! A few weeks later we had a conversation about how all of Mommy's milk was gone now, but there would be more when the new baby was born. The first thing he said to me in the hospital after Corbin's birth was "Mommy! You're milk! It came back!"

Corbin nursed until he was 33 1/2 months old. Again we did the child-led weaning (with just a little bit of suggestion on our part!). There were times when I thought that kid would never give up the boob, but he surprised me by just stopping one day. I guess he was ready!

I wouldn't change any of it...I loved our nursing relationships and was happy with how it all wrapped up when they were ready.

[Jessica]

Julie was 6 months old, then she self weaned. (She had been having formula as well. I was in school and wasn't able to pump for her.)

The other three were exclusively breastfed...
Ruthie for 15 months.
Elijah for 22 months
Ellie is still breastfeeding, she's almost 18 months old.

[Chris]

Ali was 5 months old when I had to stop because I got shingles.

Nathan made it to 17 months before he weaned himself. :D

[YourMom]

35mo next week so far

[Polly]

I nursed Elizabeth for 9 months so far. We'll see when she wants to wean and when I want my boobs back. I think we'll split the difference.


Polly

[Desirae]

I breastfed Aidan till he was 11 months. I would have BFed longer but I was pregnant and my milk dried up.

Colin is now 10 months (tomorrow actually;)) and is still BFing strong:D I will start to think about weaning if he doesn't on his own around 15-18 months.

[Jo]

Rai-19.5 months
Mira 17 months
Laura-nearly 13 months and still going strong. Truth be told, I am ready to be done but alas, I give into her demands.

[Val]

Cailin- 3 months, I wish she would have bf'ed for longer, but we had been set up for failure and I didn't know what to do.

Brayden- 12 months, it was perfect. He had NO more intrest and I was ready to be done, but I felt he got tons of good out of the year.

[giffy]

B - I weaned him at about 15 mo because I wanted to try for another baby. He was only have 2 or 3 feeds a day by that point, and he didn't fight being weaned at all.

J - self weaned at 14 months. Broke my heart as I thought he was going to be my last baby and I wanted to enjoy that special relationship for a bit longer.

R - is 13 1/2 mo and still going strong. She seems to have an intolerance to cow's milk, so I am in no hurry to wean her. We'll stop when it stops working for one of us.

[Jejune]

Gabriel - 16 months, and then I weaned him because I'd lost so much weight
Liam - 23 months, and then I weaned him because I wasn't comfortable with breastfeeding past age two.
Eleanor is 21 months and still nursing. No idea what will happen there.

[Danielle]

Takara- 11 months (went back to university and she got ticked off and self-weaned LOL)

David- 13 months (went back to shift work and with no real "schedule" he forgot about nursing after a few days LOL)

[Kate]

Maia was one of those kids that didn't want to ever stop nursing...I was all for child led weaning, and while by the end she wasn't wanting to feed every day, she pretty much went until she was a little over 5...and I figured she really had to quit because she was a couple of months off starting Kindergarten.

I do remember her food intolerance specialist being thrilled about her late wean because she had been on a very restrictive diet at that point, with me on it with her, and it made her need for extra vitamins much lower.

[MathSpeak]

33 months... soon to be 34 (on the 8th :))

[Jenny]

Tanner was 15mo
Emily was 18mo
Georgia was 15mo

[MrsSuzNZ]

I breastfed Malachi for 5 months, and Isaiah for 7. I gave up early with Malachi because I had an awful birth and just couldn't handle it.

[Tlee]

I breastfed my oldest for 13-14 months. I went back to work and we weaned gradually over a month.

My son is still nursing. We are going on 30 months with no end in sight. I have tried several times to wean him but he just doesn't want to. I'm not ready to force him so we are still going strong. I think he should be done by this summer when he turns 3 ( I hope since I am ready to be done).

[Maria]

I BF Ariana for 12 months and Marco for about 22 months

[SarahJ]

I bf'd Tara for 12 months, she basically self-weaned and it was a strictly bedtime and wake-up feed by then. We went straight to cups of cows milk, I was glad to skip the whole bottles thing!
This time I'm definitely more open to the idea of delaying solids and seeing how long we can extend the bf'ing for.

[Christi]

I didn't attempt to bf Isaac because I thought I couldn't due to medication I was taking. Come to find out, I could have!

Adam: 20 months

[Theo]

13 1/2 months so far. He's showing no signs of wanting to wean, so we'll keep it up a while longer.

[MommyBug77]

I don't remember with the older girls though it was not long or exclusive.
Brooke- the dr. said she was not gaining enough weight & put her on formula. Turns out their scale was broken.
Catie- we had so many medical problems & then her cleft lip.
Abby- breast feeding & pumping exclusively for almost 7 weeks now.

[MistressAndMaid]

I fed Charlotte until she was two and a half - that was just over a year ago and my boobs are still recovering.

[Mary]

6 months the first time.

13 months the second time.

I am always honest about the first time around and I won't make excuses. I did not want to be bf'ing and I didn't like it, so I quit. Madalyn was always supplemented with formula from about six or seven weeks on anyway. It was more an inconvenience to me than something I enjoyed so I had no incentive to keep it up and I quit. I don't regret it in the slightest. I think if I'd wanted to bf for longer and hadn't been able to I would regret it but I made the choice, it was how I felt at the time and I can't help that. It's just the way things were and definitely would be very unproductive to beat myself up over it now. Madalyn turned out peachy-keen despite it all so I'm not too worried. ;)

JZ went for 13 months because I liked it a lot more and didn't mind nursing at all. In fact I kind of enjoyed it and am looking forward to doing it again. He never would take a bottle so I couldn't have weaned as early as I did with Mad, anyway, but then he did learn to drink from a sippy so I could've had him off before 13 months; I just didn't want to.

This time I *might* consider going up to 15 months or maybe 18 but it depends on the personality of the child. We are definitely committed to a full year, though.

[Shana]

I nursed Kaleb for just 3 months. Why did I quit? Basically, because I was exhausted, and really, at my young age, just didn't know any better

Rach was nursed for 6 months.

Kara, for 13 months :)

[JoMama]

Mason had to be weaned cold-turkey when I went into premature labor at 29 wks pg w/ Patrick. Mason was 21 months old. I have some regret over that, because it had to be so abrupt. He adjusted well, though, and only asked once or twice after I came home from my 2 week hospital stay. I kind of thought he might return to the breast when the baby came, but no. Patrick is 9.5 months old, and pretty much unwilling to do anything w/ solid foods other than sling them all over the kitchen, so it's pretty much constant ninny-fest at our house.

[Shiloh]

Katherine will be 21 months tomorrow and she's still nursing many times a day. I'm not really in a hurry to wean her, but I do get tired of it sometimes. I'd like to have her weaned by the time she's 3, but we'll see what happens.

Morgan only nursed for a couple of weeks and I still regret it. I was young and didn't know what I was doing and didn't really have any support. Of course, she's always been very healthy and apparently hasn't been adversely affected by not nursing longer, but I'm also sad that I never got to have that special relationship with her.

[Rachel]

I nursed Alison for 10 months. I wanted to go longer, but I had to go back on some medication that was not compatible with breastfeeding. I went back to work when she was 9 weeks old, and pumped every day, so I'm pretty proud that I made it as long as I did.

[Intuition]

I nursed James for thirteen months. I wanted to go longer, but was on a wonky work schedule at that time and he was only nursing once or twice a day at that point. He went straight to a regular cup.

[Amy J]

I breastfed Rosie for 1 week. I just wasn't comfortable with it and it was so frustrating for me. I wish I could have gotten the willpower to keep going but with all that's been going on lately, it is probably a good thing that I haven't continued it.

[malcontent]

I'm in the process of forcibly weaning my 30-month old son. I'm sick of nursing and I started gaining weight after we'd nursed for a year, and now weigh more than I did while I was pregnant. Extended nursing wrecked my metabolism, which was never fast to begin with.

[Whitney]

I nursed Berkleigh for about 1 month and then pumped for another 4 months. I stopped nursing due to nipple issues and going back to work.

I have nursed Dublin for 5 weeks today!! And he is still going strong. I hope to nurse him for at least a year.

[AdinaVerbena]

I nursed Gabriel until his second birthday and then stopped (he was already going a couple of days between nursing sessions at that point) because I was pregnant, my nipples hurt and I didn't want to nurse two kids. Well, I had twins so I did end up nursing two kids who are almost 21 months old and still going strong. The current plan is to let them self-wean, but we'll see what happens if they're still going at it in a year. I might be done then. As it is, I've been pregnant or nursing for 5 years.

[wendygrace]

I pumped for Michael for four months but quit when doctors insisted that he wasn't going to live very much longe (for the third time). I just couldn't do it anymore. I had Michael in the hospital, was working full time and was at the hospital when I wasn't at work. I just couldn't do it anymore.

I am still nursing Danae. I was committed to six months, then a year then I was ready whenever she was. She's still not ready and she's over 3 yrs old. I am very frustrated but she still nurses several times a day/night, eats like a piggie and still struggles to gain weight. She has a love fest with the "nursies" and that bothers me more than the actual nursing. She's just constantly groping at them and it drives me bonkers since I have always had issues with being groped.