Introduce Yourself (please don't be afraid to join us) - Page 20

[e.naomisandoval]

Welcome to everyone who's posted since I joined this thread. A quick update: my older daughter weaned (with a bribe, actually, I'm somewhat ashamed to admit) when she was over 5. My younger daughter, who I thought would have been done by 3, is in a long slow natural weaning; she asks at night but not every night and nurses for about a minute. She's 4 1/2. I think I've finally made my peace with letting her lead from this point forward. I always thought it would be completely child-led, but I definitely have done some begging.

[mamadelbosque]

Hi there, my DS 21 months now and I just found out I'm pregnant and due in august 09' with #2... and so am now trying to figure out where we're headed... my mom says my brother weaned around 18 months when she was pregnant with me... i think I would like to make it to 2 years with ds, but we'll see - my breasts already seem way tender!! So nursing has become fairly uncomfortable...

[rparker]

Hi, I'm Megan. My daughter was born October 2007. We practice attachment parenting and breastfeed "on demand." She was exclusively breastfed for the first six months and has been extremely slow to take to solids, so at almost 14 months she still gets the majority of her nutrition from nursing. At the moment we're trying to conceive #2 and I'm really nervous that pregnancy might cause her to wean. I believe in child led weaning, but I'd be extremely upset if she chose to wean before 24 months

[willowtree]

My name is Tori and I am a breastfeeding mother to a toddler.
A few months ago I posted a video on youtube about my breastfeeding journey. I recieved many ignorant comments about breastfeeding and weaning,
so i decided to make an educational video highlighting the IGNORANCE widespread regarding this issue.

please watch my video, comment on it, rate it and send a link to all you know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdEN8nKWA4E

Thanks for your support.

Tori Caswell
"willowtreephoto"

[tree.in.the.hole]

salutations!

hi mamas!

i am new to MDC! i am nursing my two year old DD, and DH and i are practicing CLW.

i am excited to have found this thread!

everyone i know IRL either did MLW at 1 year or did FF from the get-go. it's nice to find like-minded moms for support!

[Riverbeauty]

Hi, I have one son... he will be 2 next month. We decided before he was born that we would be nursing him. We had no problems with the nursing relationship itself, he was born by cesarean and within an hour he was nursing like a champ. We never had latch problems, mastitis, clogged ducts, etc... we have been blessed! (knock on wood)

Our trials with breastfeeding have come from outside our nursing relationship. My family is uncomfortable with my "extended nursing" my son and frequently ask me if I am going to wean him soon. I even got called some really nasty names by one aunt who believes that nursing past the 1st birthday is considered child molestation! My son is big for his age, (80th percentile for height and 60 percentile for weight) and because of his size I frequently get stares and whispered comments in public when I nurse him. I live in the Pacific Northwest, you would think that with as liberal as this region is, there would be more support of breastfeeding! My husband and my local parenting group are wonderful supporters of extended breastfeeding however, so at least I don't feel like I am always fighting an uphill battle.

Anyway, I intend to continue nursing my son till he is ready to wean himself. I have rarely heard of a child nursing past the age of 4, so I guess that is the typical self-weaning age... I am trying to get pregnant with #2 though, and have heard that nursing while pregnant is painful, so we shall see how I do if/when I do get pregnant.

It is nice to see that there are a lot of other women who plan to CLW.

[megababymomma]

I'm Kate, Angus is 19 months old and seems to be weaning... I'm actually hear looking for strategies to prolong the nursing relationship if that's even possible. I look forward to jumping in and getting to know y'all!

xoxo

[SereneBabe]

I'd just like to say "hi!" to all of you! My daughter finished nursing last month just before she was 5.5. I'm pregnant now and due in May. This forum has been such a haven for me. I know... almost (?) no one offline who practices CLW. And, honestly, I didn't realize that's what we were doing until I found this forum. We just follow Maya's lead for most of her needs out of instinct.

So, welcome! Hope you'll love it as much as I have!

--Heather

[KSLaura]

Hi, I'm Laura. My oldest daugter is 3 and probably will be nursing until she goes away to college. I don't see her giving it up any time soon. I work 40 hours outside the home and pumped for her until she was about 1 and stopped taking taking it (she waited until I came home from work and nursed most of the evening). I'm also nursing my newborn baby girl. I never thought I would be nursing this long, but I guess I'll be nursing for several more years.

[lmj928]

Hi

Hi there! I'm still nursing my 14 month old son - he actually still nurses every few hours throughout the day and we nurse to sleep for nap and nighttime. That's totally fine with me! I wish he'd eat more solids though! I'm hoping to go for at Least 2 yrs. I'm glad there are so many extended BFers on Mothering.com!

[apple_juice]

I am nursing my 13 month old. He still nurses quite a bit. I am starting to turn into the freak of the week around here. Oh well I don't care.

When we were first getting to know each other and were having nursing troubles I was hoping to just make it through the next nursing session.Now we have been at it over a year. I hope to make it till at least two and am delaying trying to have another child until at least then so he can have my milk for a min of two years.

But.... since I got pregnant by accident last time we'll have to see. The best laid plans and all that.

[sammysmaman]

hi

Hi. I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Kelley, mom to an almost 4 yr old boy and a 17 mo old girl. I nursed ds until my third trimester of pregnancy, when he weaned himself, and dd is still going strong. Not much else to add, just that I'm happy to have finally found a group of moms who are for CLW - I don't meet many IRL

[HippieChristianMum]

Hello I have been lurking for quite a while, and have gotten a lot of support from all of you women without you even knowing it! My nursling DD will be 3 in April, and my nursling DS just turned 1 on the 14th. My mom (who was a LLL leader) nursed me and my brothers, and I (her last baby) nursed until I was 3 (I was also born at home). It has always been a given that I would nurse my babies. I think my mom would have disowned me if I didn't.

DD was a very unhappy baby who cried all of the time whether I was holding her or not (or course, I was holding her a majority of the time). She was also a terrible nurser. I always said that she nursed only when the alternative was to starve to death. I'm not exaggerating when I say that even when she was a few months old she had periods where she only nursed a few times all day long. I was constantly engorged. I could never nurse her in public because she just wouldn't. She would go for hours without nursing if we were in town. I would sit in LLL meetings and just cry because all of the other babies would just peacefully nurse and go to sleep. DD NEVER nursed to sleep, and she NEVER comfort nursed. I leaked all of the time because she would just nurse until my milk let down and then would latch off and cry until I gave her a pacifier. Anyway, I think you've got the point So, at the time I just prayed that she would make it to a year before she decided that she was finished altogether. I got pregnant when she turned a year old and then I thought for sure she wouldn't nurse through a pregnancy. Well, somewhere along the way she decided that this thing that she constantly fought against was something that she actually enjoyed doing, and here we are coming up on her 3rd birthday and she nurses on average 5 times a day.

My DS was a champion nurser from the beginning, though we had a rocky first few months. He also was one who wouldn't comfort nurse and wouldn't nurse to sleep. With both DD and DS, they would nurse until they had their fill, then they wouldn't want the milk anymore but still wanted to suck, so I ended up giving them a pacifier, much as I hated to. DS is much more easygoing temperamentally, and he is a calmer nurser, though he still is grumpy about nursing in public.

I am starting to get a little impatient with DD in regards to nursing, and I think she can tell because she has been asking to nurse more in a day. We take it a day at a time. My DS is a chunk, so I never worry that he is getting enough.

Anyway, that is a very long-winded me.

[EKSmith]

Hi Everyone!
I'm new to MDC, and loving the boards! After lurking around for awhile, I thought I should share my story...

DS1 is 3.5 yrs, breastfed for 5 months. When I had him I was young (20), uneducated and unprepared. I knew I wanted to breastfeed - it felt natural to me - but I had no clue, and was dealing with a lot of stress. After a difficult labour (ds presented transverse, had to be vacuummed and had severe bruising) it was hours before he was alert enough to latch. We had a rough go from day one - every day was a struggle. One day, after refusing to nurse for hours on end, a friend came over and offered to give him a bottle (of formula - I wasn't able to express any milk). At that point, I was so worn out and upset that I let her. DS never nursed again...If I had only known what a "nursing strike" was at the time, I wouldn't have given up...but hindsight is 20/20....

Fast forward three years to the arrival of DS2. This time, I was ready. I did my "homework" - started attending LLL meetings, researching anything and everything to do with breastfeeding. After a straightforward, completely drug free, completely natural birth, ds2 did "the breast crawl" and has been going strong since. The difference is unreal. I'm prepared, relaxed and confident. I have the support of dh - who has learned a lot from the experiences with ds1 too - and I'm so proud. DS2 is 9 months, and we aren't stopping anytime soon. The idea of child led weaning just makes sense to me, and we will continue forward one day at a time. :

I would be lying if I said I didn't feel some guilt for not knowing more/trying harder/whatever with ds1, but then I remind myself that I did the best I could at the time. We have a deep, strong bond, and I work on nurturing it in many different ways.

It has been great reading posts from other members here, and I look forward to sharing the joys and challenges of this journey with everyone!

[kaliyah'smama]

Hi, I'm Maria, new to MDC and mama to 8-month-old Kaliyah. While I understand that this introduction is intended for discussion of Child-Led Weaning specifically, I'm also interested in connecting with others who are practicing Baby-Led Weaning (BLW - method of gradually weaning a baby from a milk diet onto solid foods. It allows a baby to control his or her solid food intake by self-feeding from the very beginning of the weaning process).

We are using this method and have really enjoyed allowing Kaliyah control of her intake but I have thoughts, questions, concerns, wonderings and wonder whether there is a place for this on MDC. Any of you familiar with BLW or, more importantly, just doing it, regardless of whether or not you've labeled it?

Thanks in advance.

[leosmommy]

Hi! I'm Emily, 22, mama of Leonidas, almost 9 months. He was born naturally in a free standing birth center on May 6th, 2008. Breastfeeding has gone very smoothly for us. I did all my research before he was born...and knew AP was for us. DH supports us tremendously!

I've had sore nipples in the beginning, a few clogged ducts, and even one battle with mastitis, but we managed to get through it all with TLC, lots of nursing, and best of all...no drugs or meds!

I go to school a few days a week and pump when I'm gone. DS gets between 4 to 6 bottles a week of EBM per week, given by DH, who is home during the days I'm gone.

I also pump to donate for a family who had their baby with a surrogate. I'm blessed with oversupply!

As we progress in our journey of CLW, I am gradually getting less and less support from our families (who we thankfully aren't that close with) and am turning more to MDC. I am going to my first LLL meeting next week and I'm sooo excited! DS is still EBF at 9 months, no food at all yet. He isn't interested and we aren't pushing it before he's ready.

[ElliesMomma]

hi, i'm mom to an almost 3 year old, and newly pregnant with number 2. DD tipped me off to my being pregnant, when she declared "empty" to my breasts. my heart started to pound, but i told her, "just keep nursing, and the milk will come back." she did. two days later, i took a pregnancy test and i was. i have since eaten tons of oatmeal and encouraged her to nurse. it does hurt a bit, but thankfully, that's my only real pregnancy symptom (no morning sickness again), so i'm almost glad to have the pain. it isn't so bad anyway (i went through a lot worse getting her nursing in the beginning -- 10 weeks of severe pain). i am hoping to tandem nurse once the baby is born. so, yes pls put me down for CLW!

[ckmannel]

Hi! I am mom to Jonah, almost 6 mo. old and EBF. Honestly at first I was against CLW but the more I read (and now that I have actually experienced the beauty of breastfeeding I am leaning toward it. I'm looking forward to learning more and getting the support needed to make this choice.

[Awaken]

After all these years on MDC I can't believe this is the first time I've been to this forum!

I guess I am part of this club now! I have a 3+ yr old who, like someone said above, will be nursing until he goes off to college! I can't even imagine him weaning, he loves his milk!!! In recent months he has been nursing constantly. Even more than when he was 1 or 2 yrs old. I think some of it has to do with starting preschool, he is looking for more security and connection with me. Recently he has also begun a lot of typical 3 yr old behaviors (typically is very even tempered and easygoing!) so I think it's also his way of dealing with the developmental changes he's experiencing.

I do love nursing him and have no plans to quit (don't even see how that would be possible, anyway!) sometimes it does get hard to deal with when he is pulling up my shirt, diving down my shirt, or refuses to unlatch despite all my gentle attempts to end the nursing session.

I do have a lot of support IRL with a great group of friends, but even the die-hards have weaned their kids by now and I think only 1 of my friends is still nursing and over-3 yr old.

Glad to see we are all in good company here!

[Mama Phoebe]

Hello,
I was browsing this forum and thought it polite to stop in and introduce myself. My older child will be five in July, his sister will be three in May. We are tandem nursing. I'm sort of "in the moment" right now as far as tandem nursing. In some ways it feels like CLW might be just around the corner, in other ways it feels natural necessary and something that will be a part of our lives for ever and ever and ever and ever... I think that each of my children might have already weaned on their own if it weren't for the other. Sort of in the way that a stick at the park is more interesting to one dog if another dog is alread playing with it. I'm the stick. They're the dogs. Though they're actually quite lovely and tandem nursing has gotten us through many long nights in illness and health and it was a great help in getting their sleep synched up through the first two years.
Last year I thought about weaning ds but couldn't totally see my own logic - why would I start pushing him towards weaning at some arbitrary date when we had come so far. What was 3.5 compared to any other age? So here we are. And here I am. Nice to meet you!