Happy World Breastfeeding Week 2013!
This week, we will be celebrating by sharing real-life breastfeeding victories that you, our readers, shared with us! We were so thrilled to see all of the wonderful photos and heartwarming stories, and we cannot wait for you to read them all. Each day this week, we will be celebrating a different “category” all in the theme of “Breastfeeding Victories.” Any of you that have breastfed know that it is never a smooth-sailing ship, so each and every story is worth a celebration!
Today, we celebrate victory stories for mamas who have breastfed past a year (or more)! Our photo contest winner will be leading off our post…..
PHOTO CONTEST WINNER: Amanda
Meet Owen. Owen refused 14 different brands of bottles! He became ‘mommy’s little accessory’ and we were never apart. Owen taught me to throw out the books about babies, to have more patience when things don’t go according to plan, and to enjoy the one-on-one nursing time. On October 16, 2011, (the day this photo was taken) we threw a huge 2nd birthday party for Owen. He decided the morning of the party that he was done nursing and he never looked back. I didn’t wean him and there were no tears. Sure, we had difficult times along the way and plenty of odd questions and rude comments (no, I will not be leaving for the weekend to wean him; yes, he still nurses, we will stop when he’s ready regardless of what age that happens at; no, I’ve never had a babysitter, he goes where I go and he feeds on demand). I had a freezer full of stored breast milk created so my husband could give Owen bottles and I fretted over it until I was able to mix the last drop of milk with some of his homemade purees. It was hard work creating that stockpile! We nursed all over the city of Chicago (the El, every museum, stores, buses, lobbies, elevators, the chair while getting my haircut) and definitely had some awkward moments (it is definitely the windy city and I flashed a few people!). Breastfeeding wasn’t always easy, but I would not take back a single moment of our journey and I understand that Owen’s refusal of a bottle (or 14) was a wonderful thing for our bond. Since we were a nursing team for two years, I feel like I can handle anything and that is truly my breastfeeding victory! Owen now has a 10 week old little sister and we are a great little team thanks to the lessons that Owen taught me.
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Jennifer
I am breastfeeding 21 month old triplets and hope to continue well past the 2 year mark!
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Leah
Charlie is now 25 months and is still happily breastfeeding. Though we’ve encountered many naysayers, I am so thankful that we’ve been able to take this breastfeeding journey so far! Charlie will nurse until *he* decides to self-wean, as his father and I know that he is getting innumerable benefits from mama’s milk.
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Laura
Photo caption: ‘At peace: a true glimpse into the early days’
I am so thankful to be able to say that I am currently still nursing my 14 month old. If you’ve every nursed, you know this is a success not because it has all been easy–but because breastfeeding can be very challenging!
As a NICU nurse, I daily worked with moms to help them in first/early breastfeeding attempts with their premies. So having my own baby, it was easy to think “I’ve got this– I teach people EVERYDAY!” Suffice to say, I got a huge dose of reality when I held my son and latched him for the first time. This was not easy, or natural (at least not in the early days). It was awkward to hold him, and his latch (despite all my training and efforts to correct it) was poor. He was effectively getting milk, but destroying ME in the process. It didn’t take long for me to develop painful cracks that refused to heal with a number of common treatments. This lasted E-I-G-H-T long and painful WEEKS. My babe’s pediatrician finally offered some relief when he prescribed some nystain, with the assumption that any wound that is open for that long will have some yeast growing and hindering the healing process (even though I wasn’t experiencing other symptoms of a yeast infection). I cannot thank him enough for this insight. This was our turning point… I slowing began improving and have enjoyed this difficult but OH SO rewarding journey in nursing my baby ever since! 14 months and going strong! (And unfortunately, this wasn’t the only challenge. We struggled though engorgement, plugged ducts, and another round of full blown yeast along the way. A true labor of love 🙂
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Anjanette
My sweet firstborn nursed on the hour for several months and even as he began to space out his nursings, he very rarely went more than three hours without at least nursing for comfort. He is empathetic and perceptive and so much fun. Even when my milk dried up during pregnancy with our second child, he desired to maintain the connection we had through breastfeeding. After his sister was born, he understood instinctively that she needed the milk more than him and only asked for it when she was otherwise occupied.
A few months before he turned three, he started skipping a couple of days between requests, and then a week would go by before he remembered to ask. So I sat him down and asked him if maybe he thought that on his third birthday he would be ready to let his sister have all of the milk since he was old enough to eat lots of other things and we could snuggle without nursing. He wasn’t bothered by the idea at all, so on his third birthday he had his last nursing time with mommy. 2.5 years later, he says he can still remember that it was sweet and warm and snuggly. 🙂
Thanks, Mamas, for sharing your stories! What’s YOUR extended breastfeeding victory?
My most joyous memory to date was with my second child. She nursed til she was 3 years old and one more time 6 months later. Ten of those months were alongside her little sister. We had a weaning party when she decided she was ready to move on.