Introduce Yourself (please don't be afraid to join us) - Page 21

[juliemarie]

Hi! I'm Julie. I am nursing my two girls, 3.5 and 2. the oldest is down to nursing just once a day, generally. She also wants to nurse when she is sick or very upset. While she nurses very little, she is very attached to her "bb's". I don't see her giving them up any time soon.
And the 2 yr nurses, what feels like, constantly. She shows no signs of slowing down.
When I was pregnant with dd1 I thought I would nurse for 2 yrs. After she was born I just couldn't see myself forcing her to stop. Now it's up to them.

[juliemarie]

I didn't realize I'd already posted here.

[BethandLC]

Hi, I am new to MDC and have been looking around getting acquainted with the boards.

I'm Beth and I have a 25 month old nursling dd and I am 27 weeks pregnant with our 2nd child. For awhile there I was afraid that the drop in supply at the beginning of my 2nd trimeseter would signal the end for dd, but she has returned to her more frequent nursing schedule since my colustrum has begun. I plan to CLW all of my children and hearing many of your stories has been inspiring!

[fabhare]

wonderfull family

Hi,
I am a mother of 3. My first madee is 4.5 I am home schooling her and I have twin 6 month old boys Jesse and Jame. I breast feed the twins,so I sit on the couch a lot. : My wonderful husband who work hard all day so that I can sit on the couch all day and he still comes home and takes the kids so I can workout for 1 hour.:

[fabhare]

I love my family

[sarebare43]

For the luv of Lu

Hi, my name is Sara. I have a beautiful 9 month old daughter named Luella.: From the beginning of my pregnancy I decided to let Lu do the decision making when it came to nursing. Despite the unwelcome scoffing of co-workers,family and friends I have remained loyal to my decision to let her wean on her own. Only I had no idea it would come so soon. My Lu is fiercely independent. She's still nursing occasionally but my milk supply is dwindling and I feel that this is the beginning of the end. I'm heartbroken.

[HoneyComb]

Hi I'm a single mother trying to do it all.I have a DD who is 13 and I have a DS who is only 6 months it feels like I'm a new parent all over agian fo waiting so long to have another child and he is a BOY so he is much more of a handfull than my DD!With my first child I fed her on formula but with my son I have made a vow to feed him strickly breastmilk till he is about a year old wish me luck he can be alittle agressive

[c218]

New Here

Hi!

I'm a regular on a more mainstream mommy forum, but am glad I wondered over here today after clicking a link on the mothering.com newsletter!

I'm SAHM (unemployed) to DD, 13-months. On my regular forum I'm an ODDBALL because I exclusively breastfed DD 'til 11 months and we co-sleep and don't vax.

BF is still her primary source of nourishment, although I now regularly give her organic purees at meal times as well as cheerios and puffs to get her used to chewing. Once she's a pro at that I can't wait to switch her to the more crunchy organic versions of those two!

I was surprised to read on here how old the children are when they are self-weaning. It seems I'm the oddball here too b/c I thought weaning would naturally happen by 2 years old or so.

I let DD lead as far as that goes...and she's ALWAYS been a very strong nurser and we've had no problems with supply and gaining. She's always been off the charts for weight (and now height).

I look forward to familiarizing myself with these forums.

[tomasko]

New to MDC - my children may never leave their "ma hum"

Never thought I would tandem breastfeed, everyone told me that children wean themselves during pregnancy..NOT SO! My first born would drink his "ma hum" even if it tasted like gasoline.

I also heard that child eventually slowdown with their breast feeding but my 2.5 year old, is nursing MORE now than before...this is with a four month old.

Breastfeeding is the oldest ones favorite thing in the world...

[nolonger]

I'm not afraid to re-introduce myself, just disgusted that I have to because I don't think I should belong here for at least another year or two.

But I live in the real world and I need support (or at least a safe place to vent) so I might as well let everybody know who this weirdo is.

My earlier intro is upthread aways and I'm not going to bother looking for it because my life circumstances have changed. I am a once and future CLWer. dd CLW'd and nursed for the last time when she was about 7 1/2 after "for five minutes every two or three months" had been reality for quite awhile.

I fully intended to do the same with ds1, but something went wrong; maybe I was worried about the sexual connotions because he was a boy, maybe I was "all touched out" after 10 years of pregnancy and/or nursing, maybe homeschooling was more impoortant to me than CLW, or maybe I was just busy, but what happened was that I would tell him he had to wait to nurse until I finished a hiomeschooling or housework task and then when I finished, he would seem perfectly happy with whatever he was doing so I wouldn't remind him or offer to nurse before I started the next task. He stopped asking when he was about 6 1/2 years old.

I regret weaning him very deeply and see a huge difference in him and dd as "big people". They are now 20 and 17. I have another son who is only fifteen months old. I don't feel like I belong here and I am shocked, horrified, and disgusted about all this nonsense I hear about weaning one year olds. I'm sorry if this makes me sound judgemental, but I can't control my feelings, only my behaviour. I expected better from the world after seeing so many of my "weird countercultural hippie" childrearing practrices become mainstream in the 16 years between my baby boys' births and knowing that the WHO and many other authorities that are commonly accepoted by mainstream parents recommend at least two years of nursing instead of the 9-12 months that was recommended when ds1 was a toddler.

ds2 has a different father and a vastly different personality than his siblings, so he may be done with nursing when he is two or he may go past toddlerhood like his siblings. I don't really care one way or the other, I just want weaning to be HIS decision and I want to do whatever it takes to avoid a repeat of ds1's weaning or worse.

I hope that, as a veteran who has nursed kids past society's expected norm and a parent who has personally experienced both CLW and MLW and raised one of each to adulthood (or near adulthood) I will have something of value to offer here and that I can come here to vent when I need to so that I can support parents who choose MLW with other issues we that we do have in common. I also hope for bluntness and hionesty if the issues that caused me to push ds1 away and "accidentally" wean him resurface when ds2 is older.

Thank you for listening.

[Carlyle]

Originally Posted by noordinaryspider

I fully intended to do the same with ds1, but something went wrong; maybe I was worried about the sexual connotions because he was a boy, maybe I was "all touched out" after 10 years of pregnancy and/or nursing, maybe homeschooling was more impoortant to me than CLW, or maybe I was just busy, but what happened was that I would tell him he had to wait to nurse until I finished a hiomeschooling or housework task and then when I finished, he would seem perfectly happy with whatever he was doing so I wouldn't remind him or offer to nurse before I started the next task. He stopped asking when he was about 6 1/2 years old.

Oh wow, I do this all the time with my dd and she's only 2.5. I really don't want it to make her wean, but sometimes I just need a break. Do you think it's a bad idea??? Rather (since I do need to keep doing this a bit for my sanity), do you have suggestions to make sure that the "please wait's" and "the boobies need a break now" don't turn into weaning? Especially since dd does use a pacifier to help keep me sane at night.

[nolonger]

JMHO but I think it's FINE to ask a 2.5 year old to wait and I'm pretty sure I asked dd to wait. I feel that my mistake was in not telling ds1 "I'm done with the dishes/helping dd with her Math/whatever so we can nurse now." and being dishonest about saying "just a minute" when I really meant, "Oh no, maybe you'll forget about it by the time I finish the dishes so I can do the laundry."

hth

[Carlyle]

Originally Posted by noordinaryspider

JMHO but I think it's FINE to ask a 2.5 year old to wait and I'm pretty sure I asked dd to wait. I feel that my mistake was in not telling ds1 "I'm done with the dishes/helping dd with her Math/whatever so we can nurse now." and being dishonest about saying "just a minute" when I really meant, "Oh no, maybe you'll forget about it by the time I finish the dishes so I can do the laundry."

hth

That's good to hear. Thanks!!! I don't want to intentionally wean dd for good, but I have set a LOT of limits (because I get touched out easily) and have even night weaned (when I was pregnant last). So yeah, I'd hate to have the unintentional effect of weaning her or turning her off nursing/making her feel bad about it. I guess I've been feeling guilty lately for the amount that I've been telling her that the boobies need a break. But by gum, sometimes they DO!

[lula'smom]

i'm a sahm to dd aged 3 and 3 mths. i would like to let her self-wean. but, my girly has always been a night nurser and nobody's gotten enough sleep in forever (we've always had a family bed). also, my milk seems to be running out which makes bf so much more uncomfortable for me and frustrating for her. i tried for two nights to say the nummies were sleeping. instead i tickled her, sang to her, and rocked her (for hours actually). she didn't cry and get hysterical--she just didn't sleep. after those two nights, i have given up on it for now. not sure if that means i need to let her decide when it's right to give it up herself or what. anyway, just been struggling with this stuff and checking in to this forum is helpful. thanks.

[SuzymomofLaura]

Hi

Hi everyone (howdy, noordinaryspider! Good to see you're over here too )
My name is Suzy, I have a almost two year old and a four and a half year old, both girls. I never heard of CLW, but just nursed my eldest until my milk dried up completely because of being PG with #2. It didn't feel right to stop nursing her, so we continued for 27 months in total. I wondered if we would maybe tandem nurse, but that was not in the cards for me: when my milk came in again DD didn't like the taste of it anymore, and decided that boobs are for babies . With DD. 2 I'll just wait and see what happens.

[SpunkyMama]

so happy to have found this section

My name is Kristin, and I currently nurse my 7.5 mo old son on cue. We have nursed like this since he was 1 month (after we got over some bad advice from the doc!). My views of bf'ing have changed dramatically since ds was born. I knew I wanted to nurse him for at least 2 years. Then I saw the 20/20 news program on extended bf'ing (and basically how absurd/gross/weird) it is. I thought long and hard after that about nursing and at what age children should stop. I went to a LLL meeting and the leader there talked about how nursing is a relationship... after that I finally understood why some people nurse longer than others. I went from saying 1 year to 3 and then 5. I do believe I want to nurse until ds is done (no matter the age), but I feel I will need lots of support for it. Everyone keeps telling me that he will not learn coping mechanisms if I nurse him too long or once they can ask for it in a complete sentence it is too much. I live in the Midwest, so I know there will be a lot of conservative opinions surrounding my opinion. I know DH is comfortable until about 4 or so.

[SuzymomofLaura]

Hi Kristin!
I can so relate. But getting and offering support is what we've come here for, right? I always feel it's DD's business and mine, I'm not asking anybody to judge me or give me that nonsense about not developing coping mechanisms :
IRL I seemed I hardly ever met anyone that nursed beyond 1 yrs, but... it turnes out some actually have but are kind of shy to share it with the whole world. Only last sunday, when we were visiting the hospital a nurse looked at me and said to me with this cute smile:"how nice you're still nursing her, I nursed my son 'till he was two years old too"