Support thread for bf 6-12 months

[Hulla]

We've passed the ebf stage but we're not quite extended bf-ers. Any other "inbetweeners" want to join me in a general support thread?

We can chat about anything - bf & weaning, night feeds, going back to work, coping with pressure to stop, biting when feeding (ouch!, whether to stop, whether to carry on...anything.

Pull up a comfy chair and lets support each other. Chocolate biscuit anyone?

Morning all! I'm so glad you think this is a good idea for a thread.

littleweed sorry I missed you! GS , kiwi, MHill, pinkyred, bunnybunyip, beccatheboo, cakeforbrains, cara & elkie welcome, welcome, welcome!

Hi csws - are on the extended thread? I like to pop on there every now and then to see what I'd be letting myself in for!

gs I'd be interested to hear how you get on continuing bf while pg. I've hear that sore nipples can be an issue. How are today?

kiwi does dd ever spend any time away from you? Mine doesn't really but if we go out for the day she is so distracted she tends not to bf, just solids & water. She catches up when we're home (obviously less exciting here!). Your dd might be the same?

MHill I think if you're feeding on demand then your dd will be getting everything she needs. Is she having plenty of wet nappies? Happy and well? My dd is a bit hit and miss with solids but it perhaps says more about my cooking than her appetite! I feel like its clicking into place lately though.

Bunny I'm going to pop over to your nursery thread after this. We visited dd's nursery this week who told me I have to make up two bottles for her per day. She doesn't have bottles so I plan to give her ebm in a sippy cup. Not sure how they'll heat it (or if she'll drink it) but its doable for me because she's going to 11.5 months when she starts and she's going for 1 day per week. If she was in for a few days I'd probably have to give formula too. Don't feel bad about that. I am sure you will be able to continue to bf for as long as you both want!

Becca well done making it this far! I have been convinced for weeks that af is on its way but nothing yet. I am cetain I've had cramps but still no sign. Has it affected feeding at all? I read about someone whose dc fed more.

CFB 14 months is great! My dh is supportive of bf but says he looks forward to me stopping. He has said over age 2 might seem weird to him. Hmmmm...we'll see!

elkie my fil is like that - he neurotic about mess so when if dd drops anything he breaks out into a sweat!

Phew! Need a lie down after all that!

No, doesn't seem as if AF has bothered DS. He takes what he needs and pushes me away as usual! Can't complain though when I read about babies his age still feeding around the clock. He's the same with food - has his fill and no more. Just worry that he's a bit of a tiddler (less than 25th centile, although haven't had him weighed for ages). My other son was completely the opposite, a right bruiser at 95th centile. We're doing some purees (chunky) and lots of finger foods, although I find it hard to get inspired. Weirdly he likes savoury purees but is not keen on pieces of vegetable. Better think about lunch now. Bye!

Becca try here for inspiration. Im sure you can puree a lot of the meals mentioned.

Becca 25 th centile isn't a tiddler - 25% of babies are smaller than that! DD is somewhere between 2nd and 9th centile. Besides those charts are for FF babies really... The best things come in small packages!

Hi Hulla - I pop on there from time to time yes. I am feeding dd who is 3.8 and ds who turned 1 on Saturday, so just missed qualifying for this thread .

csws 3.8 & 1? That's fablulous! Well if you see anything on here that you can answer as someone who has been through this (twice!) then I'm sure we'd all be grateful for the tips!

Hi all My DS2 is nearly 10m and still nearly EBF because he has virtually no interest in food.

The little blighter has started biting me recently AND waking gawd knows how many times at night. At 8 weeks he was sleeping 10-6 every night I am just starting NCSS....it's either that or NSPCC!

Hi all
Hulla I'm fine today just absolutely starving. DD's feeds seem seem to be getting shorter and shorter On the one hand I feel glad that she'll be able to cope when i go back to work, if she's already reducing now, but on the other hand feeling sad that it may be coming to an end. My mum fell pg with me when my brother was 9 months too, and he self-weaned a few days before his 1st bday apparently. I'll just need to wait and see how it goes i suppose.

greensnail - do you know whether you want to stop bf, or continue and tandem nurse, or have you not decided yet?

Hello all. DS is 11mo and now I am back at work I am giving him one BF a day in the morning, he has a bottle at bedtime as I'm not always home to feed him. I love BF and in the morning we do it in bed lying down so I can watch him and snooze for a bit longer (have to get up at 6.15 - boo!) and he's so peaceful and concentrated (unlike when he was 4-8mo).

My only concern now is that everytime I see him or am with him between 3/4pm and bedtime if I hold him he starts bashing my chest and whinging and is only happy when I give him the breast. I don't mind as its lovely to do but he isn't much fun to be around as he gets upset if I'm there (so its tough for DH and anyone else who is there). I know this isn't really important but DS doesn't want any milk when I'm not there and is happy.

Am I making any sense?!?! I guess sometimes I want to just cuddle and play with DS not just be a milk machine.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this, I really don't want to stop BF yet.

Also if you are still BF after 6m has your AF returned. Mine hasn't yet.

Sorry for the very me post - HELLO to all!

Great thread idea hulla

Hi everyone - DS is 7 months, still BFing, although as DH managed to persuade him to take a bottle the other day, he does get the occasional bit of formula too, as I really struggled with expressing. DS had about 10 formula feeds before he was 13 weeks - not sure how bad that is - then nothing but BF until we started BLW at 25.5 weeks.

Hadn't expected to make it this far BFing, so not really sure what's supposed to happen next. Hoping that we can muddle through together!

Got to go - DH has just finished bath, so time for bedtime feed.

Hello - can I join too please? Hello to all those from the BLW thread

DS is 8.5 months and totally addicted to boob. ChocOrange - I get that too, I can't seem to hold DS for more than 10 mins or he starts snuffling and pulling at me. I have to feed him at nearly every baby group I go to, when all the other babies are sitting there nicely .

I've had a few comments already about me still feeding him (he's a baby fgs ).

He doesn't have any teeth yet so don't have to worry about biting either but he still manages to be quite rough. Nipple bungy is his favourite sport!

He doesn't sleep but I'm not back at work yet so I suppose things could be worse...

Oh and my periods haven't come back either but like Hulla I've had some cramping and have been convinced I can feel my right ovary .

ChocOrange - dd was always like that. If you end up giving in most of the time anyway, then why not just give him some milk to start with, and then you can play with him without feeling like it's a constant battle .

As for periods, mine came back at 9 months with dd (she had just started sleeping through the night), and I've had one so far since ds, which must have been when he was about 11 months (he's not sleeping through the night yet).

Hi everyone, have just been catching up on the thread as I've been at work today. Has made me feel a bit emotional actually as I never thought in the early days I'd make it this far with bf. I don't know anyone in RL who's still bf so I think we should all have a celebratory biscuit as we are so fab.

Bunny my DD should have been at nursery but a few weeks before she was due to start it got a bad Care Commission report so cue mass panic to find alt arrangements and ended up sharing a friend's nanny. Will have to be temp though - I don't earn enough for it to be long term. Now waiting to get to top of waiting list for work nursery. It took a few days for DD to settle with the nanny and take milk but we got there in the end. Have just been reading your nursery thread - for a first day that sounds just fine. Keep posting and letting us know how you're both getting on. We have our fingers crossed.

IsItMe - no AF yet at 7 months, well apart from brief bleed at about 3 months but nothing since.

cantsleepwontsleep I've always said that I would carry on feeding as long as we were both happy, and a few weeks ago I couldn't imagine wanting to stop. Now I feel like maybe it would be better if DD would stop feeding before the new baby arrives. But then feel sad for feeling that, as though I'm making DD grow up too soon, just because I've got pg. Basically I'm just confused about the whole thing.

I'm starving!

I keep saying that I'll stop BFing when BB is a year... It's going to be emotional though. I definitely felt hormonal earlier this week when he only had two feeds a day (instead of 5) because I was at work.

It's never an easy decision gs. Just take it one day at a time for now . We can talk about the advantages/disadvantages of tandem feeding further down the line if you want to.

That would be good, thanks CSWS

Morning hello. Hello to provincial lady, IIMO, sospan and chocorange.
Thought I would share with you some musings I had in the middle of the night when DS decided to wake at midnight, 2am, 4am and 6am for no apparent reason other than fancying a bit of a cuddle.
What have been the highs and lows of your breastfeeding "career"? I thought of these:
Highs:

1. DS's first ever breast feed, aged 2 weeks old, when midwife said he had to feed for 15 minutes for it to constitute a full feed not needing topping up with an nasogastric feed. I thought he might go for 5 mins but he carried on and on for 25 mins. Couldn't believe he didn't need any extra. He hasn't stopped since.
2. Finding the lovely feeding room in IKEA (sounds a weird one, but I thought it was great!)
3. Learning to feed lying down whilst half asleep. Best thing I ever did.

Lows:

1. In those 2 weeks BEFORE he fed having to express. Trying to suck a single drop of colostrum off my nipple with a syringe to give to him (milk didn't arrive for over a week). DH saying "why are you doing this?" when I was in floods of tears.
2. My one friend who seems to have a problem with BF rushing to shut the curtains when I was feeding at his house.
3. Leaving EBM for my MIL to feed DS with when she first babysat. He wouldn't take it, she tasted it to see if was off and said it didn't taste nice. He was screaming when I got home. I was not very happy.

Would love to know everyones high and low points now we are all experienced BFers!

Hiya everyone, can I join, although won't be here long as ds is 12months on Halloween

I never thought I would be feeding him this long but I suppose I had no choice. He has never taking formula or a bottle, and refuses point blank!

Hello everyone, glad I found you!

DD will be 11mo on Monday and still feeds quite a lot - first thing in morning, 11s and afternoon snack, bedtime and dreamfeed, often once overnight too. Is this lots for someone her age? I'm fairly sure DS fed less at this age.
I fed him till he was 14mo and then stopped cos my boobs were sore because of being pg with DD, but by then he was only on one or two feeds a day.

Greensnail, I am 8+4 with 3rd pg now and haven't found my boobs too sore yet this time, but she has more teeth than her brother did and especially when she's tired her latch can be lazy and quite painful.

Sorry to yatter on so long about me
What milk do you use in their food? Is anyone expressing to mix in baby cereal or using formula or normal milk?

Morning all,

Great idea bunnybunyip, sounds like you had a really hard time in the early days. hmm, so my highs and lows...
Highs

1. First bf when DD was about 30 mins old. She latched on and fed like a pro for about half an hour, then came off and started looking for more I'd been so worried I wouldn't be able to feed her, as I knew so few people who had fed their babies successfully, so it was just absolutely wonderful
2. Wonderful midwife I saw the day after my milk came in, when i felt like it was all falling apart. Thought DD didn't like feeding anymore and that I was going crazy. Midwife gave us the confidence to keep going, showed me how to feed lying down and encouraged us to try co-sleeping - fantastic

Lows

1. Feeling like i was going crazy in the early days when DD was feeding all night every night.

2 Friend saying "oh, are you still bfing - I couldn't wait to stop at 6 months myself" Then saying well done, but making me feel like a weirdo!

Sorry but your friend shutting the curtains made me laugh - I have a friend like that but I tend to just laugh at her getting all stressed out about me feeding, when I'm perfectly chilled about the whole thing.

Yorky Nice to meet someone else who is pg and bfing. Congrats on the pregnancy.
We use cow's milk when cooking for DD, can't be bothered with expressing or getting formula and we all have the same food anyway. I have also started giving a cup of cow's milk with her tea as I want her to get used to it, as that's what she'll be having when she stays with my mum when I go back to work.

What a super idea - I loved reading your highs and lows. Mine are:

Highs

1. DS2's first feed after a lovely home water birth...he was about an hour old and latched on without any difficulty. DS1 only ever BF a handful of times and with a great amount of shoving etc from the midwives So I expressed for 18m and was soooo anxious about DS2 feeding
2. Like you bunny, learning to feed lying down in bed and going straight back to sleep. Bliss!
3. Sudden realisation a few weeks ago that all I have to take out of the house now is a nappy and wipes, as DS2 never pukes or poos on his outfits and I don't need to take bottles or anything else...just myself. It makes going out so easy even at a moment's notice.
4. Feeding in a Spu-u-Like (don't ask!) and a table full of teenagers on a day out from a school for troubled youths started whispering "is she BF?" etc, so I smiled and said that I was. They then had a ten minute discussion about the benefits of BF It was lovely and one boy said afterwards that he had learned something.

Lows

1. Being admitted to hospital when DS2 was 4 days old due to my bladder not working, and me being in a lot of pain. DS2 refused to latch on and I stupidly agreed for a MW to 'help' even though I swore I would never let them. She started the old forcing and shoving technique so I told her to stop, but I wish I had never let her near him
2. Feeding in front of my FIL against my better judgement, and him staring at me and making constant 'bitty' comments and spending the rest of the day talking about it. My MIL fed both her children and I know he is fully supportive, so he was not trying to be horrible but is just a berk. Even so, I have never fed in front of him since and yet I will feed anywhere else!