I also grew up around animals nursing their young, cats, dogs, horses, cows, goats but never realized it may have played a role until reading this lovely thread. I was breastfed, but not sure how long. I do have vague early memories and they include a bottle. I know I was bf because my brother (who is 6 yrs older) told me about the birds and the bees when I was 6. He must've told me about breastfeeding because I have a clear memory of going into my parents bedroom (which we kids never did) and asking my mommy if I could nurse again. I even remember the look of confusion and embarrassment on her face. I don't know if it was a prank my siblings put me up to, but I remember everything about those few moments perfectly, the way everything looked and how she looked.... anyway I got pregnant with my 1st when I was 22. He came very early and was in NICU for wks (I knew nothing of crunchy then and was pretty much not crunchy...)(He was born at 28 wks, but was fully formed, I delivered naturally and he never needed oxygen or anything, his lungs were perfect) I remember people (hospital, social services, WIC?) telling me how my breastmilk would help him so much. The hospital gave me a pump to have at home and I pumped all the time. I visited him twice a day for as long as they would let me each time, and delivered my milk daily (I remember even getting mad when they mixed up which to give him next, I knew about colostrum from animals and they skipped the colostrum bags). He died from SIDS days after coming home. I donated all my pumped milk. Fast forward 10 years, I was still not crunchy much, I was eating organic was about it. I heard about EC while pregnant with dd1. I read all about it and joined the yahoo group. I learned about all sorts of things on there, like extended breastfeeding, cosleeping, no vax, MDC, and my door to many things, "The Continuum Concept" I had thought I would breastfeed dd for maybe 3 months, then return to work.... then I read TCC. I fed dd1 until she was 3.5yo and should have gone longer, we weren't ready to quit, but her dad wanted to take her to CA and since we were divorced, I couldn't go.... she went for 10 days and we never resumed. 
dd2 is still going strong at 16 mo (she nurses all day and night) and I was able to retain my extra weight with her which will keep me making milk. I will go as long as we both want to and my body is capable.
dd2 is still going strong at 16 mo (she nurses all day and night) and I was able to retain my extra weight with her which will keep me making milk. I will go as long as we both want to and my body is capable.
). They also did babywearing at a time where there weren't a lot of awesome babywearing options. But, I feel pretty fortunate b/c my parents had all of us late 70s/early 80s which seemed to be a pretty "unnatural" time for parenting but they did all the things that are now considered to be AP. Anyway, my mom is definitely my number one inspiration for nursing, I grew up thinking that was the normal way to feed a baby. I love my mom, she's one awesome lady.
