supportive partners!

alex tells me all the time, I'm so glad you nurse, could you imagine all the times we'd forget to bring formula??

When she was tiny and I was sore, he used to wiggle her in front of my face and say "MOMMMA I NEEEEED YOU I JUST WANT SOME NUUUURSIES, I LOVE YOU!!!!"

and it helped, sounds silly I know

I don't know if my partner is so much supportive as insistent on extended nursing. When I get sick of nursing every 5 seconds and say that I want to wean my littlest guy, he gets so indignant and tells me there's no way I can wean him, he's way too young! The baby in question is 15 mos. old.
My 4 yr. old still nurses and he's pretty supportive of whatever I want to do in regards to that situation... sometimes I want to wean and he encourages me, others I want to keep going and he encourages me... I guess I listen more to the encouragement to keep going because I have so far!

When his family (or anyone else for that matter) asks when we are going to wean dd (currently 17 months) DH says "We'll cut her off on prom night."
I am not good at dealing with negative comments or questions that seem to be judgemental of our choices, so he acts as my shield and defends our right to parent the way we choose.

My dh is pretty supportive of ebf. I nursed my ds until he was 3 years old and am still nursing 22 month old dd. I know that he understands ebf is great for children of all ages but I'm sure a lot of his support comes from the fact that it just makes things a whole lot easier (for him ) - no bottles, no dealing with the nightwakings, perfect meltdown fixer, etc... He really is a great guy - not just lazy

DH had a countdown going 'til 1 (since I'd told him that babies wean around 1 year of age, Mom said so and I didn't research much beyond that when Ina was little) - partially because he's a breast man and partially because I was on a really restrictive ED with Ina and he wanted me to be able to eat regular food again too.

But Ina's allergies were still there as she approached a year of age. I started researching "extended" breastfeeding because we were afraid she'd wean before there would be a safe, accessible (and cheap and delicious) calcium source to replace my milk ... was pleasantly surprised to read that as long as I didn't buy into some of the mainstream info about solids introduction etc., Ina would likely nurse 'til 2 or older. The more I researched it, the more sold I was on it. And as I researched and read up, I'd read things to dh too. And he became more supportive as he learned more too.

Ina was about 18 months when he laughed at his sister while talking on the phone with her, after she told him that Ina was too old to keep nursing and should be weaned. He thought she was kidding, since *everyone* knows that babies should nurse 'til 2 or older. (I wish!) .... She hung up on him, she was so mad at him.

Anyway, I think that it is very possible to help a dp move from "ewww, that's awfully old," to "Yes, it's good, but what will X/Y/Z think?" to "What's wrong with X,Y,Z for NOT bf their baby this long (or longer)?" That's the progression that dh has followed. He went from doing a blanket dance while we were NIP an infant, to walking calmly through a zoo while I carried a nursing 18 month old, and beyond. Any more, he's actually quite judgmental of people who wean at a year! In some ways, he's a much more brutal and open lactivist about that sort of thing.

I think a large part of his change of heart (beyond the research and actually seeing it happen) is that he's seen how much it helped Ina as a toddler, to still be bf. When we were gently weaning during my pregnancy with SJ (nursing while pregnant was awful for me I'd hoped to do CLW with Ina but it was not workable) - he would come and remind me how very much our 2 1/2 year old needed to nurse, and how important it was for her. He was very much an advocate for her at a time when she and I both needed that.

I love my dh!