The Nursing Baby - Your Breastfeeding Stories

Overall, I think I have had an easy time of nursing compared to others, but then again maybe I had just more perseverence than my early weaning friends. I am happy to say that my daughter and I have made it to her 17th month (5/31/96) nursing without a drop of formula ever. (Thought one time came close before I knew better. DH was taking care of baby while I went to doctor's appt that ended up being 45 minutes behind. I thold him through tears over the phone to use a sample can if he needed, but thank God he didn't).

Anyway, Beth had her first nursing within an hour after birth and took to it like a pro. DH has told me that one of the nurses even commented, "Well you won't have any trouble with nursing". I don't remember he saying this, guess I was just too caught up in the moment. I had read a lot about nursing and had just accepted that I would. Funny how I never even considered any otheroption from the start even though no one I had known had nursed for very long.

When we began nursing I decided I would nurse until 6 months and then wean to the bottle because somewhere I had read that all the baby gets all they need in the first 6 months. I remember thinking in those first few dayshow long away that seemed. I nursed and nursed, at 6 weeks my daughter and Icame down with thrush. Thank God my SIL noticed it, I had not even remembered reading about thrush, and we were far enough along that nursing started to HURT! We both got treated with Nystatin but it didn't quite get rid of it. We went through 4 more cases of thrush, the second of which resulted in a breast infection that was Horrid! I was alone for the weekend with my daughter and was dizzy and feverish and in pain. I called the midwife who I had met after the birth of my child and cried to her how I just wanted to wean but didn't know how without making it worse (this was at 2 1/2 months). She talked me through it and sent in a prescription for me and things cleared up. Believe me, never let Thrush get that far again!

Well nursing once again was uneventful until around the 5th month when I started thinking about how I was supposed to wean Beth. We had recently got online and I went in some chat rooms to ask how others did it, and wasn't I suprised to find a lot of others DIDN'T do it. They asked me why I was weaning so soon! :) I had never had anyone suggest I should nurse longer. I took the advice I received and kept nursing. Around 10 months my daughter (with 4 teeth) got into a biting stage. Once again I faced sore cracked nipples, but this time I was also being chomped onat every feeding! She wasn't biting because of the teething, by the way, she was doing it to tell me she was done nursing or whenever she wanted to show some displeasure. I began tensing up waiting for the pain, so my milk would not let down quick enough and therefore daughter would bite more. It was a vicious cycle! I had tried all the ways recommended to stop the biting, but none worked! Beth started refusing the breast, I called LLL and I was told she might be self weaning! (at 10 months!) I refused to accept this and went out and bought a good pump, intent on pumping to her second year if I had to! Then I went online and luckily once again, I found advice. One woman suggested flicking my daughter with my finger when she bit and saying No bite firmly. I really did not like inflicting pain on my daughter at all, but I was at the end of my rope, so I tried it. Within two feedings my daughter stopped biting completely and we went back to nursing normally once I healed. All I can figure out is she didn't realize biting hurt me, but once it hurt her too, she knew to stop. :(

Since that last problem at 10 months it has been pretty smooth sailing since. We came to the 12 month old mark, and never considered weaning. Beth only nurses 4-5 times a day now and I do sometimes worry that she might be weaning on her own already (because she falls asleep on her own after nursing for nap) but I am trying to keep her at my breast until at least 2 years. I will then follow the don't ask, don't refuse policy. Right now, I just keep asking! :)