I've made it to 18 months of breastfeeding and a year of Baby-Led Solids! It's so ingrained in what I do from day to day that I don't honestly think about it that much. It's extremely hard for me to imagine feeding my child in any other way. I've held a bottle for all of about 5 mins total in 18 months, and only during the times when my overactive let down was really getting in the way and out of desparation to try to calm a screaming, hungry child who refused to latch on did I attempt a couple times to feed him a bottle of expressed milk.
He's also probably gotten about 1-5% of his food from being spoon fed simply because we were too lazy in the moment to do it right. If you are eating a container of yogurt on the couch and your child clearly wants some, sometimes it's easier and definitely less messy to just spoonfeed instead of getting him his own bowl and spoon. But I'd say at least 95% of all the food he has consumed has been either breastmilk or eaten with his own two hands.
I'm guessing most people think this but breastfeeding sure did not go how I thought it would go. I think my child is what they refer to as a "snacker." Never EVER were there definite feeding times, and never ever, even today with a toddler, am I aware of how many times he actually nursed (except on those rare days where time with him is limited). If I counted how many times he actually latched on, it could be like 50 times. I'm guessing my overactive let down added to this because if milk is coming out fast you've got to take some breathers.
There have been a few times when doctors have asked me how often he nurses or how many times a day and I totally have to fumble over these questions because, really, when we are home, he nurses a lot, and when we are out he might nurse once in a few hour time span. And at night, I'm not even aware. So... The true answer is, "I don't know and it varies a lot."
When I hear other mothers talking about specific nursing times and lengths I wonder how they know. Are they making it up, or do some children actually ask to nure and then nurse for 10 mins and are done for a while? Because mine never did that. Mine would cry or sign "milk" nurse for a minute, come off, nurse another minute or two, do something else for a minute, come back and nurse for a bit. Sometimes I would get a whole 5 mins and before nap or sleep or after nap or sleep sometimes 30 mins or 45 mins. But when he was younger, it was less.
My husband today mentioned that maybe we should give him cows milk even when I'm around, to which I said, "but why wouldn't I just breastfeed him?" My husband noted that they I would be so angry about nursing.
I'm an angry nurser now. Not all the time, but frequently my toddler annoys me with his toddler antics during nursing. Not sure why I can't accept that he's a toddler even while nursing. Frequently things like, "please don't climb mommy while nursing," "no pulling hair," "pick a booby and stick with it," "both the boobies are out, what is the matter?" and "enough! Boobies are taking a break now!" Come out of my mouth.
Dammit... I want more specific nursing times. I told my husband that I would think about limiting the times we nurse; I'm not ready yet, but if he's noticing how annoyed I am sometimes, maybe it's time to cut back a little; later. I've got bigger fish to fry with my wanting to start potty training in the next month or two. I'm not going to do two things at once, it will just be too stressful.
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