100% breastfeeders - please come and say hello - feeling a little isolated here!

[Miaou]

I'm the only bfeeder in RL in my group of friends, and it seems that much of my postnatal group on here is mixed feeding. I've now reached the point where the tiredness is getting to me and I have reached a low ebb. Many people (out of kindness) have suggested I should begin weaning or introduce a bottle, which I am really not ready to do. Fortunately dh backs me all the way but I would like to chat to other 100% breastfeeders (past or present), just to reassure me that I'm not my own!

Just come and say hello and maybe we can offer each other a boost if/when we are feeling down!

Tinker,over two pregnancies,I never got more than about 8 oz a day.
Mind you,if you express regularly (I found morning the best-fed off one boob and expressed off the other) and freeze your milk,it soon adds up.

tinker, once you get back to work you'll be expressing whole feeds from both boobs that's why it sounds like a lot. ideally i would express 2x at work and 2x at home to make up 15oz. since I have a hectic timetable at work i don't get to do that so I try to pump on weekend nights too to makeup any shortfall and keep a little reserve in the freezer.

My DS was 100% breastfed till just before the 6m mark. Initially he was happy to take a bottle of expressed milk from his dad or nanny so I could go to bed early, have a nap, shower etc. But at about 10 weeks he started refusing the bottle, so I had to do the job all myself. I really resented him at the 3-4 month point b/c, whilst I love breastfeeding (and am now at 14m trying to figure out how to stop), I had no life beyond demand feeding. So to keep my sanity I would still go and do the things I had to do and leave him with his dad or his nanny with a bottle and pray that he would take it. But the guilt when I came home! He would go hungry rather than have the bottle (we tried every tactic, type of teat etc. etc. but my ds is quite persistent and would literally only take a bottle if starving). I realised it was going to have to be 100% boob or 100% bottle, and chose the boob. BTW, I got a double barrelled electric pump from the NCT catalogue for about £70 - amazing thing! 5 minutes and I had 4-5oz per breast. Forget those hand-held things - life is too short. Also, don't stockpile more than you realistically need or you will put too much pressure on yourself. One feed ahead plus one spare is fine.

Sweetkitty - very well done.

I must admit to looking at women giving bottles to their babies with a look of scorn mixed with pity and smugness. I was proud to do it and did it anywhere in public I wanted. No one ever stared or said anything - quite frankly I think it just looks like you are giving baby a cuddle unless you are up very close and personal - or being a complete exhibitionist. My ds gets so much more pleasure from the boob than he ever could from a bottle. He doesn't have a dummy or suck his thumb - he had no separation anxiety or stranger anxiety at all. We introduced a spouted cup at 6m and he had water from it during the day. However, having said all that, if I breastfeed now in public, people do give me that look as if you say, you still breastfeed? They would never think that a 14m old having a bottle was abnormal, and in fact they should be on beakers after 12m, shouldn't they?

One final thought - then I am done. Next time around (no not pregnant but thinking about it ), I will probably be more relaxed the whole 100% breast issue. I honestly don't think a little bit of formula (say one feed per day) is a crime. I would still try to express, but you can always top up whatever ebm you have with a bit of formula to make a full feed. Some breastmilk is better than none.

miaou, I have an Avent hand pump kit thing that you can have. I'm afdriafd pumping was just too much like hard work for me I did hand express occasionally, but that still involved washing bottles

Got to go just now - stick at it! I keep reminding myself about al those lovely fresh nork ingredients that DS gets - the antibodies are v v v v v impt when they start crawling and socialising!

Hi Miaou. Another 100%er from the August thread. Caitlin won't even dring a bottle of EBM anymore.
Sorry your group isn't more supportive. Everyone in our play group is 100% BFer too. It really helps when I get down about how tied-down I feel while BFing.

hi there!i'm new in here,and just wondered if anyone has any tips on how to stop breastfeeding?my daughter is now 15 months old and is driving me batty!!shes just constantly from one boob to the other all throughout the day and night (she wakes up around 6 times during the night,and always has).she has cystic fibrosis and the paediatrician and dietician wanted me to feed her for as long as possible,but i'm now really wanting to give up,so any tips or advice would be very much appreciated!!!

Start with breaking just the day feeds first,keep offering alternative drinks (with bottle or preferably cup ready all the time) Praising/ encouraging constantly "your a big girl/boy now" "look your own special cup" etc. sounds like hard work but you'll be surprised how quick they get the hang of it.when you crack it i bet you'll wish you were feeding again!

I started a thread on giving up the breast on "Weaning" earlier today. You might like to take a look at some of the ideas there and we can keep each other updated on progress.

thanks Jen and brightstar!i'll take a look at your link.husband thinks hat once i stop feeding,i'll want another baby!!got five already!!

HiMiaou. Not read all the thread - just your posts. I exclsively fed. No formula and no expressed milk. She had her last feed at 13 months. Now feeding ds (10 weeks).
I found the only downside of making this choice was the fact that I had to be around for the bedtime feed until she gave up. But in the general scheme of things not being able to go out until after 8pm wasn't too much of a sacrifice. Also, she didn't sleep very well until she was 10 months, and I always wondered whether she would have slept better with a formula feed last thing. But much as I wondered I was also too stubborn (and lazy in some respects) to make the move from breast to bottle, even for one feed.
DS, unlike dd, has taken very well to occasional bottles of EBM.
The tiredness does ease. Even if your baby doesn't sleep brilliantly until they're older, you will become more accustomed to nighttime wakings. Now for example ds wakes once or twice a night and I can honestly say that it feels fine.
It is tough feeling like you're the only one out there. Of 10 friends from post-natal group, only 2 of us never used formula. Sometimes felt like I was being a martyr, especially as MIL used to say emphasise that she would look after dd, only couldn't as was b/feeding. Like I was setting myself up for a tough time. But in the end I was proud of myself for doing it and dd and I enjoyed the feeds as well.

"Sometimes felt like I was being a martyr, especially as MIL used to say emphasise that she would look after dd, only couldn't as was b/feeding. Like I was setting myself up for a tough time."
This is exactly how I feel a lot of the time. Thanks for this thread Miaou, it is succeeding in giving me the lift I needed. There is no way I am giving up b/fing, but I really do appreciate being told I am doing a good job once in a while. I told dh this today . I am hoping he understood where I was coming from but I am not sure as he knows I enjoy it a lot of the time too lol. How are you today?

Hi Miaou,
Another August baby here - dd refuses to take a bottle of EBM or even a dummy, so it's all me. I'm expressing about 4oz a day of the local milk bank, since dd won't drink it. I'm really glad to know that others from the August group are still bf. It does feel a bit isolated in RL.

remember when i was BF ds4. auntie said to MIL (with disgusted look on her face)"why does she keep feeding for so long". Made me so angry i was determined to feed for as long as possible!.Best feeling in the world.

when my baby was a week old,my husband got taken into hospital (kidney stones).i went there with the baby to see him.he'd been taken for a scan and x-ray,so i went and sat opposite the lifts to wait for him.baby needed feeding,so i popped he on,not showing any flesh at all.lots of people walked by and commented on my baby,despite it being obvious that i was feeding.then an elderly nurse came to the lifts.if looks could kill,i'd have been buried 10ft down!!!she stared at me for a good few minutes,with a total look of disgust on her face!i laughed at her,amazed taht someone in the healthcare profession would make hr dissaproval so obvious!i told my midwife who insisted i wrote to the chief exec of the hospital.i did,and they couldnt appologise enough,saying that our local health authority promote 'breast is best'all over the hospital.ive never been worried about feeding in public,but with the attitude of so many people,theres no wonder alot of younger mums opt out to breastfeed.

I like breastfeeding. It can be a bit boring/uncomfortable/inconvenient but you can't beat it for soppy love hormone inducing. Both my babies have been firm fans too.

I did it in front of dh's grandparents today. They can't have got to 80+ without seeing the odd nipple so I didn't think they were going to be too shocked .

Do you know I hardly ever see anyone BF when I am out (maybe cos we all do it so discreetly ) but do you think if more people did it in public it would encourage more people to BF in the 1st place and therefore not be such an issue? I personally don't have a problem feeding in public, but now ds is 7mths (a big boy too!) I am wondering when/if I will get any funny looks.

Know what you mean about making a martyr of yourself! Yes BF can be hard work at times but I wouldn't have it any other way . Really like being the only one who can feed ds and settle him to sleep.. ahhh

lol triceratops - 'odd nipple'

Not read the whole thread, but - "Hello" !! .

Still b/feeding dd2 (8 mnths today) - she wouldn't know what to do with a bottle . Planning on continuing to at least 12mths.

Breastfed dd1 exclusively up to 6mths then mix-fed as I had to go back to work. Stopped completely at 9mths.

Glad the martyr issue touched a chord. Thought I was the only one Isn't it silly to feel slef-indulgent or over-ostentatiously worthy .
Re: feeding in public. I have no problem doing it - in fact the only time I have ever felt enbarrassed was in my own home (!) when a friend made her husband leave the room, then left herself when I started feeding. I think she thought she was sparing my feelings - didn't want me to feel exposed. In fact had quite the opposite effect.

its very isolated feeding for longer in RL< the only person i know who has breastfed longer than what i am is my aunt and she bf her youngest til she was 3 or 4, am not very close to my aunt so rarely see her. i b/f at some play earlier niot good with a nosey baby and those sill tables which the seats dont move, i was seated at an odd angel and dd3 kept nosing about , think the kitchen staff got an eyeful of my boob lol.

I actually find it impossible to feed dd2 anywhere other than a very quiet, boring place at the moment! She is so nosy, that if there are any distractions, she will not settle down to feeding. Mothercare's nursing room is the only place "out" I have been successful recently.

My ds is a nosey parker too, when I feed him out (even in a mother & baby room with no-one else around) he keeps coming off for a look around, a and a giggle!

I'm reading this thread with interest. ds is 6 months. I BF other than one feed per day which is a bottle of expressed milk, and even that makes me feel guilty! I get asked all the time when am I going to stop BF and comments like "are you STILL BF?"! I find that quite a pressure as I have no idea how long I'll BF for.