Now that Doodle is a year old and walking well, the question I get asked the most is “Are you still breastfeeding him?” Usually rhis question doesn’t come from close friends or strangers, but acquaintances who know I was breastfeeding but don’t know my full stance. The short answer is: yes, I am still breastfeeding him. To which I have gotten varying responses from shock to “why? he’s over a year now,” to “more power to you, I didn’t make it past 3/4/5 months.”
The whole answer is a bit more complicated though and is something like: I don’t plan to stop anytime soon but sometimes I really want to.
We’re still exclusively breastfeeding other than solids. He occasionally has a sippy cup of milk when I work longer hours and loves to “drink” his sisters’ waters (AKA, suck it up and spit it out all over the floor.) but we haven’t yet given him any other kind of milk or juice. He still nurses every 2-3 hours during the day though he does do great during the night, usually sleeping from 9ish to 6ish.
My goal for breastfeeding with all three kids has been to get to one year and I’ve been successful all three times. With Honeybun I started dropping feeds right after her birthday but she was almost exclusively on breastmilk (since I’m a “Milk Hoarder”) until 15 months and then nursed every morning until 18 months. Sugarplum was exclusively breastfed until about 16 months (when we took our Holy Land Cruise–breastmilk is much easier and safer when traveling to new and exotic places!) when we started slowly cutting feeds and she continued every morning until 27 months.
Feeding and weaning the girls was easy. There was no drama, no trauma, they just went with the flow. I’m not us Doodle would be so agreeable at this point. He has started talking and signing and his favorite phrase is “mi, mi, mi, mi” while doing his sign for milk. Because he is communicating I want to encourage him to continue so don’t want to tell him no but he now wants to nurse every time I return from somewhere, every time he’s tired (though he doesn’t fall asleep nursing) every time he’s scared or hurt, every time I sit on the couch…. It feels like having a newborn again and all I do all day is nurse. I’ve started redirecting his requests to what I think he really wants or needs but he still asks constantly!
My other problem is he has started pinching. While he feeds, he usually squeezes my breast with both hands which sometimes causes him to slide off a little bit and IT HURTS. I keep telling him he needs to stop pinching or he’s not going to get mommy milk anymore but he obviously doesn’t get it and I’m hoping it’s just a phase so we can continue and don’t have to stop before we’re both ready.
Sure he’s a year and we could stop and switch to cow’s milk at any time but why? All the reasons breastfeeding is great for babies and newborns still apply to toddlers. The benefits to both of us didn’t just magically disappear on his birthday. It’s still cheaper, it’s still faster, it’s still healthier, it’s still more sanitary, it still protects both of us from future diseases so if there is no reason we need to stop (other than society saying it’s weird to keep going), why would we? (More about the benefits and conveniences of breastfeeding).
And check out my list of all the things that are actually easier to do while breastfeeding (like when the baby is on the boob!)
