On 16 March, I breastfed Noey for the very last time. He was 17 months and 2 weeks old. (It was supposed to be 15 March but I caved the next day!)
It’s been a long journey and I must confess, I’m not sorry to see it end. Except on the days when it takes FOREVER to get Noey to sleep and I think back on how he used to suckle and drift off into oblivion. Breastfeeding wasn’t difficult for me once I’d gotten the hang of nursing lying down. He could drift off to sleep while I get a rest and sometimes drop off to sleep myself as well. I think back on that fondly now as we undergo endless minutes of singing as Noey rolls all over the bed and all over me before he finally settles!
Seriously though, I’m not sorry I breastfed Noey, and when I have another child, I would do it all over again, daunting as it might seem to think about. For one thing, it certainly saved me a lot of money in formula. For another, Noey has been extremely healthy. But for the one time that he came down with flu last August, he’s not come down with a fever that was not vaccination related and has only had the odd sniffle or two over the last nearly 18 months. I’d like to think the breastmilk went some way in keeping him well!
When I think back, I marvel at the fact that we managed to keep it going for so long. Not that Noey wasn’t a good feeder — he was a good feeder from the word go. It was the teeny weeny fact that he just doesn’t like milk.
Who would have thought right, that a baby wouldn’t like milk??
Things moved along swimmingly on the feeding front till he was around 4 months old. I think it was around that time that the milk strikes started. I would be holding him and practically jamming his face into the boob and he would be craning his little neck in the opposite direction, turning left and right, looking everywhere but at the boob where I wanted him to go. It was tiring and and stressful, espeically when the milk was his sole source of nutrition. The pressure eased up somewhat when he started on solids, but as milk was still regarded as his primary source of nutrition, we faced a new challenge when I went back to work — the boy wouldn’t take the bottle. While he would grudgingly take some milk when he got hungry (which was like, a mere once a day), he would mostly wait for me to get home and drink his fill at night, and sometimes in the middle of the night as well. He only wanted his milk straight from the source and wasn’t too keen on the expressed stuff.
I tried transitioning him to formula instead, and surprise surprise, he didn’t like formula. He’d take it in his rice cereal but not on its own. Since I had ample supply I didn’t push it and figured that I’d just continue feeding him morning and night (leaving his caregivers to wrestle/cajole a bottle down his throat in the afternoon), and wait till he turned 1 to transition him straight to fresh milk instead. Except that, of course, he didn’t like fresh milk either! I tried everything: different formulas, different brands of fresh milk — Pura, Meiji, Farmhouse, Magnolia, even HL cos I thought he might like the vanilla taste (he didn’t), soy milk unsweetened and lightly sweetened, all dished out in a variety of bottles, straw cups, cups, served cold or warm. Didn’t work.
In the end, under the instructions of his Paed — who confirmed that some babies just didn’t like milk too much — I gave him chocolate milk.
Now that, he liked. I have a video of him drinking chocolate milk for the first time during our Hong Kong trip in Dec and he was giggling randomly, positively drunk on the stuff. But even though it was approved, I couldn’t in good conscience give him chocolate milk for every feed so what I’ve done is to dilute it with regular fresh milk in a 1:4 ratio and that’s what he takes now, 3 times a day, between 120-150ml per time. It’s a paltry amount, I know, but together with his regular serving of yoghurt in the morning, it just about meets the minimum requirements for his age.
At least he’s drinking it!
Admittedly though, most of the time, the feeding sessions look more like this:
It’s been getting better.
Anyway, I decided that the breastfeeding really had to stop. I think my supply was already barely there, and Noey was only feeding for comfort, not for sustanance. We had also fallen into the bad habit of offering him the boob whenever he needed to sleep because it was so much easier for everyone involved.
It was hard in the initial week. I couldn’t put him to sleep alone and needed DD in the room with me to distract Noey from the fact that Mama was refusing him the boob. DD would sing and it would calm Noey down enough for him to try to settle down to sleep, usually only after much rolling and stroking of our arms and elbows, and sometimes my leg. He’s very odd, this boy. In the first couple of days, he would wake up at the usual 4-5am time and require some middle-of-the-night singing in order to go back to sleep. But after 2 nights, he didn’t need the singing and after a couple more days, he finally stopped waking up and is FINALLY sleeping through the night AND not breastfeeding. Hooray!
Now I have to find a way to get ME to sleep through the night. Sadly I’m the one waking up. And also figure out how to kick Noey out of our bed without screwing everything up!
One step at a time…
Good for you V. You really have saved yourself A LOT of money from buying formula. Lol.
Yay to you for keeping this up for such a while…<br />Nat doesnt like fresh milk or the packet milk.
Thoes images look so familiar as my boy is like that too.. Well done you for going for so long!<br /><br />NatChin
Sounds so familiar! My boy who is 9 months old is exactly like Noey… i have tried different bottles, straw cups but to no avail. he just wants to latch on and on and on…what type of choc milk did you give Noey?<br /><br />BTW, i came across your blog from patricia's. Enjoy reading your blog!
Discerning taste buds, I say! :)<br /><br />I'm still nursing Katie twice a day on average. Sometimes she goes to sleep without nursing, sometimes she wakes up without nursing… was aiming to stop at 18 months but mostly cos of lazy me… think otherwise I'm quite happy to continue… still deliberating… :)<br /><br />Kate doesn't drink that much fresh milk a day either. Just two
hi,<br />i took forever to end my breastfeeding journey with my daughter now 29months.OCT07 baby.<br />She only slept through at 14months.<br /><br />The thing about me, i still have a lot of supply even when i stop her at 22months plus.<br />I had magnitis,nipple abrasion as she was sucking too hard. Luckily i managed to wean her off without any traumatic experience when we were off for our hk
and she prefers freshmilk than formula .
Kudos on keeping it up for so long! I know how tiring/hard it can get! <br /><br />I wish I knew how to soothe Sean back to sleep in the middle of the night without using the boob – it is just so much faster and easier that way 😉
Michelle :: Haha, well, honestly I would have been happy if he just drunk it, you know?<br /><br />Lilsnooze :: Well, it wasn't entirely by choice! Nat's a formula boy then?<br /><br />Natchin :: Thanks, and haha, I sympathise with anyone who has to suffer through the struggling just to get milk down our babies' throats!<br /><br />Anon@01:21 :: Hi, thanks for dropping a note! I
Congrats for having come this far!! It's amazing!! I'm very much looking forward to breastfeeding better the next time round!
Amanda :: Thanks babe, I'm sure you will!
Wow, amazing persistence and dedication! I do think breastmilk helps to fight off illnesses in babies; good for Noey. I can so identify the part where the baby doesn't like milk! So stressful! ;/
Shyanyan :: Thankfully when they start taking solids, the distaste for milk is less of an issue, but I do agree it's stressful! Hope Shin is drinking better these days.
bf-ing for so long is such an amazing feat! Well done already! <br /><br />I certainly hope I can tahan that long.
fleurpress :: just take each day as it comes. and don't feel like you HAVE to breastfeed, though i do also think it would be best for baby. remember — formula is not poison, and if you have to feed formula, don't feel guilty yah?
wow.. this speaks to me on so many levels! I do hope to kick elijah out of my bed soon.. and stop nursing him to sleep, just because it's easy! :p
lingz :: elijah's only, what, 2 month plus? great job if you manage to do it so soon! but seriously, just set a target for yourself and follow through. and don't stress if you backslide cos we all do sometimes!
Tell me about weaning. My boy is still attached to my boobs. He'll literally "rape" my boobs. Self service! Haha… <br /><br />Oh gosh… the obession with boobs starts young. I must be more hard hearted!
Eng :: Hi there! Thanks for leaving a note. How old is your son now? I really wanted to stop before he could help himself cos then there'll be no stopping him! Good on you for extended breastfeeding though. I don't have the patience for it!
btw, both my girls only drink choc milk. mer gave up regular milk once we stopped giving her her milk in a bottle. she only wanted chocolate milk in her sippy cups. oh well. then of course morgan saw that her sister had chocolate milk, and because she wasn't keen on drinking ANYTHING at all other than breastmilk, we had to push the choc hemp milk due to all the allergies. <br /><br />so don&#