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?

What a good idea - i would like to join.

I am feeding my little 8 month old. we are generally feeding at around 7, 11, 3 and before bed. the daytime feeds are only about 5-10mins long - is that normal? the before bed one is longer - about 25 mins.

I can't imagine stopping bfing either - not least because i am too lazy to get the hang of either formula or bottles - i am going to try to keep going to a year so i can avoid doing either and move on to cows milk and sippy cups.

my baby won't feed if there is someone else in the room or if there is too much going on or any noise - even turning the pages of a magazine distracts her - very annoying! i do miss the old days of hour long feeds while watching tv!

it is great though and i love the way the feeds cheer her up if she is grotty and punctuate the long days.

For those whose babies are still feeding at night, i did nothing to encourage her not to feed at night but she started sleeping through without a feed about two weeks ago - so it WILL hopefully happen soon for you. If it is any consolation, i am still totally knackered at the end of the day and bedtime is still about 9/9.30pm.

I almost qualify (dd is 24 weeks) so may I join in too? I was due to go back to work 4 days/week yesterday but had a vomiting bug - to cut a long story short, I couldn't keep food down, and it was all I could do to produce enough milk for dd let alone add to the stockpile I'd begun expressing for my first day at work. So I could have worked today, just, but didn't. Dd has never had formula and I figured her first full day apart from me was not the moment to introduce it. AIBU? I have it all planned... electric pump for work, manual as back-up, cooler bag... but the best laid plans, etc.

I too really enjoy bfing, though it doesn't seem to be de rigueur to say so. Dd bites occasionally, but it's generally a sign that she's not that hungry and is mistaking me for a teether. Flattering.

Hi nadsss, DS only feeds for 10 mins now too. I never thought I'd miss those mammoth feeds but I used to get an episode of the west wing and now I get half of nigel slaters simple suppers! Is much easier when feeding out and about now though.

Hi Elpis, hope your are feeling better. YANBU, the last thing you need on what is a difficult day anyway is not be feeling 100%. Where is DD going when you are at work?

hi! can I join? been BFing for 6 months now (not by choice though - formula makes him sick, not just overflowey sick but a whole feeds worth of acidey vom!) Would love to be able to ditch the expressing!. In fact I never intended to BF at all - recovery nurse put him on me when I was out of it without asking my DH if I planned to BF or not
But anyway its turned out that I have fed him this long and it looks like it'll be a while yet till I can stop.

wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience:
DS has had a bottle of EBM in the evenings with his dad from 5 weeks.
But he doesnt seem to take much EBM for his childminder!
he never went long stretches between feeds - he's a 3 hr boy! he usually spends about 4 hours at the childminder. One day he was there for 8 and finally took his bottle after about 4 and a half hours.
So today as usual she said that he wasnt really interested in his bottle, so I said oh never mind its probably just because he's got a tooth comming through but she said that that cant be it as he didnt seem to have any gum pain and took some water in a bottle from her
Why wont he take milk from her? should I be worried? he seems otherwise happy there, naps well (he will only nap for me, DH or CM, so I think that's a good sign - has trouble napping for his grannies) and he eats his baby rice for her and drinks from his beaker

Hi
bunny I was also very excited when I found the feeding room in Ikea....I think it's something to do with feeling that you have been provided for. I was also impressed with the feeding room at John Lewis. Oh how things change when you have a baby

Highs:

1. Adaptability - being able to go anywhere and stay longer than planned without having to worry about him going hungry.

1. Feeding for an hour in the afternoon when he was little, and grabbing the opportunity to either read a book or watch TV.

1. Now, feeding him and us both drifting off for an afternoon nap!

Lows:

1. At 1 week old when he lost loads of weight. I had the serious baby blues, it was the middle of winter, I thought he might have to have a formula top up, and I was really upset that he was so small. Turned out he was only getting the foremilk. I was very lucky to have a good friend who is also a midwife, and she worked out what the problem was.

1. At 5.5 months old, feeling so guilty that he was still feeding through the night. Tried formula, goodnight milk (ha what a joke!) and dreamfeeds, but nothing worked except time. In the end I gave up and just fed him when he wanted. I now kind of miss the night feeds!

1. Being such a zombie in the early days when he was feeding all night and not sleeping. Why it took me so long to discover co-sleeping is a mystery.

On another topic, I have been doing loads of extra hours at work the last couple of weeks and I feel like my supplies have dwindled. Any tips for increasing my milk? He's gone from 4/5 feeds a day to 2/3.
Only doing two days next week, and then I'm off for a week and a half.

Cara - after an indian I am like a fem bot! dont know which herb does it but something they use increases my supply to the point where I have to double up breast pads

nadsss that's pretty much what BB did at 8 months old, very short feeds in the daytime.

Hi, can I pop in, DD2 nearly 6 months and not interested in solids, bottles or anything other than the boob so looks like I'm in there for the long run. I remember from DD1 that bfing got VERY tiring and exhausting after a few months - I caught one virus after the other during her first winter, and got very thin and run down. Need some advice please on how to cope this time round, how do you all keep healthy when extended bfing puts such a strain on your bodies?

Cara Fenugreek is supposed to increase supply. Salbysea maybe your favourite curry is chock full of that???

Just popped in to say hi and bye! DD2 turned one yesterday. Last BF this morning (in my daze at the stupid o'clock I forgot I was stopping, and fed her anyway!).

Good luck to you all. Well worth it for many, many reasons

salbysea - has your ds been formally diagnosed with a milk protein intolerance? If he has then you should be able to get a prescription for hypoallergenic formula which you can use for cooking, and/or when you choose to stop bf. It does taste a bit vile mind!
My dd had milk protein intolerance, and my ds allergy (though in reality very little diff between their symptoms), and that is prob one of the reasons that I continued to bf beyond the 'norm'. Dd outgrew her intolerance around 20 months, but too early yet to say if/when ds will outgrow his. Unfortunately it is severe enough that I have had to eliminate all dairy products from my diet as well (the protein has been proven to pass through into breast milk).
We use oat milk (with added calcium) where necessary in cooking (makes great pancakes).

I personally don't like feeding rooms, but I've never found one that wasn't also used for nappy changes. I would rather feed in a restaurant if that's where I am than lock myself away in a glorified toilet.

CSWS

no its not an allergy, but apparently if we had persevered with it (when he's not ready to cope with it) we could have made him allergic to dairy IYKWIM

the advice we've been given is stop, try again in one month and if same, stop and try again in another month. We send a carton of formula to the CMs but at the mo he's not even drinking all his EBM for her so the formula is not needed.

his poor little system took a terrible battering as I was on anti-inflamitories, broad spectrum antibiotics and other stuff - so many meds! after having him. I should never have BF him in the first place! So I think his tummy is just a bit delicate as BFing was so rough on it in the start, and we have to take things slow. So far we are BLWing him on a dairy/gluten/nut free diet and will slowely introduce them one at a time. we are isolating foods (so only one new food every 3 days)
it going fine, he is having rice and veg and fruit and fish and I plan to introduce chick peas and chicken next week

Hi Saltysea that sounds rough and expressing really is the pits, isn't it? Love the Fembot moment though.

Feieribend I know what you mean about feeling run down. No tips other than just try and eat well and sleep as much as you can. Not always easy I know.

Hi Nadssss - my 7mo DD only has v short feeds now too. Bunny I miss the days when I could settle down to a whole episode of Ugly Betty or Mad Men. Now like Nadasss I can't watch anything at all as DD is soooo easily distracted when feeding.

My bf lows:

Trying to feed screaming DD in hospital on one side while vomiting (me not her) on the other side from allergy to drugs I'd been given .

Quite frankly most of the first 8 weeks before she'd learnt to latch properly and when I also had terrible back pain .

But my highs have been great:

The first time DD looked up at me after a bf and giggled. Just gorgeous .

Feeding DD to sleep and watching her drift off into zzzzzzz. Unfortunately stopped working about a month ago and have had to find other ways of settling her at night .

My first feed using the My Brest Friend feeding cushion. Terrible corny name but it saved my back when it was totally knackered and kept me bf when I was about to give up .

Managing to feed DD for the first time after her harness went on for hip dislocation (she had to wear one for 3 months and it held her in such an awkward position I feared I wouldn't be able to bf). It was ok though and her hip mended well .

Oooh the halloween smileys have made my text go a bit spacey! Ooops.

my lows - most of the first few months TBH! where to start? the pain, the poor baby COVERED in thrush cause of the drugs I was on (not just oral/nappy, also had nasty colonisations under arms etc
The drained feeling after a feed and feeling afraid to cuddle him because I was afraid of how tired I was and afraid I would fall asleep with him if I held him on the sofa.

highs

• discovering biological nurturing! really turned things around for me
• going camping with a 3 month old with about an hours notice! nappies - check, boobies - check! No way could I have done that without lots of forward planning / packing if I had bottles to faff around with

Hello - would like to join you too.

My DD is nearly 8 months and was EBF until we started BLW at about 6 months. She adores her food and will eat and eat and eat (and drop / throw/ mush / paint with!). She's just started sleeping right through - from 8pm until 7.30/8.00 am in the last week, just wish I could sleep through too!
We're feeding 4 times a day at the mo, each feed about 5 / 10 mins and I'm missing my TV watching too - had loads of stuff V+ed and just know that I'm never going to get the chance to watch it...
No AF yet, but really hoping that she hurries up as would like to try for number 2 ASAP. Fingers crossed that the night weaning will have some affect. Have decided that if no AF by the time she is 12 months that I'll have to stop BF, but I'd really love to continue....

hi all
mrsmeeps my periods came back when DD first started sleeping through just before 6 months (she only did it for a month then started waking again though) So hopefully yours might make an appearance soon too. Some people manage to get pg without having a period anyway, so no harm in putting in a bit of practice now anyway - make the most of your baby free nights

I think with my smug post re sleeping through I may have jinxed myself....she was up at 4 am crying and has done nothing but bfeed all day, she is a bit snotty though, so I can probably blame it on a cold.

Nips have been sore today - not sure if it is because they are in shock over the increased feeding or what!

greensnail practice sounds like a good idea

Hello again,

BF highs:
1st feed in hospital (although can't remember when it was - felt like forever, but was probably the first night!), when v experienced calm mw showed me about 5 different positions in 5 mins and finally got us settled with him almost undressed and feeding lying down. Was such a relief.
Getting my left breast to "work" after about 5 days by using manual pump.
Realising that ds had been sleeping and feeding at the same time, so wasn't getting quite as little sleep as I feared (was worried he wasn't going to be able to develop having read stupid sleep books ).
Running out of series that I had sky+ed at exactly the same time as ds started to get quicker at feeding .
BF lows:
None really, once the early weeks were under our belts. Has been surprisingly easy.

Having said that...ds has started to feed less during the day as he's taking in more solids, and after only having 2 night feeds for as long as I can remember, he is now up to 3, and sometimes even 4. Has anybody else had this problem? He hardly seems to eat during the day, and genuinely seems hungry at night. We could all do with more sleep, so any tips gratefully received.

Thanks for that encouragement Nadssss - lol at 9.30 bedtime - we have that hear and were like two Victor Meldrews last night when there was loud music coming from a party down the street. It stopped by about 11 I think, which of course we wouldn't have minded pre-ds.

Ooh, and am a bit miffed that I missed the Ikea feeding room - all I found at the Croydon one was basically a large (and smelly) toilet, so I fed in the car. Did I miss something?

May I join?

I'm bf'ing DS, 6.5 months. I bf DD (now 4) till she was 2 so continuing past 6 months feels entirely natural and in fact I'm not really sure I understand why anybody would swap to formula unless they had to.

DS is a bit of a boob addict and a rubbish sleeper, which is a bad combination. He wakes every 30-90 minutes throughout the night. DP can sometimes settle him by rocking, but with me only boob will do. I'm about to start some form of sleep training - probably dr jay gordon - if anyone wants to join me for mutual support?

Hello everyone and welcome to the new joiners! Just a quick post to say hi. I'm ill at the moment but I'll try and post later.

just had to try new emoticons

Oh Hulla that's not good. Really hope you feel better soon. I just posted on BLW to tell you how fab your apple pancakes are. We made them last night and DD - and me and DH - loved them. On the minus side after all the chat about periods returning mine appears to have come back today, as DD turns 7 months (born round about exactly this time of day). So I feel a bit rubbish too, hmmmm.

Oh and nomoresleep, welcome. That sounds a bit rubbish on the sleep front. My 7mo DD has started waking at night again since we started food but usually only once - she was sleeping through hmmm - and nothing like you're having. Good luck if you decide to go for sleep training. We will be here for you.