Breastfeeding at 18 months

This is a follow-up to my initial post on breastfeeding baby E which can be found here.

It's a couple days away from baby E's 18th month of being breastfed. I'm really excited and grateful that we've managed to come this far. Our breastfeeding journey has not been without it's challenges and I'm writing about them on this blog before the memories fade and my brain retreats into lala-land making me think that it was smooth sailing from Day 1.

Which it wasn't, it wasn't smooth sailing at all.

Reading the KellyMom website helped maintain my sanity in the initial few weeks when nothing seemed to be going the way it was supposed to.

I do have to say I am eternally grateful to my mother-in-law who cooked yummy confinement food which helped keep my strength up. And I am also thankful to the ENT my mother-in-law visited to get treatment for her persistent cough because he told her that cow's milk causes lots of problems, not just in adults but also babies and that she should encourage me to breastfeed baby E for as long as possible. I could feel her being supportive with all the fish & papaya soup she made during my confinement month.

However, note to those who are living or tending to a brand new mother in confinement - even a passing remark on how the baby's looking can cause great mental anguish to her! My mother-in-law kept commenting on how baby E seemed to be losing weight every now and again during that first month and on top of his constant crying / yelling and non-sleeping I had a mental breakdown and the hubby came home to find me crying my eyes out after she had passed that comment for the umpteenth time.

However, I'm happy to say that we made it though those challenges and baby E has been on breastmilk ever since. He's recently started asking to drink cow's milk which he seems to like and it hasn't affected his nursing. I drink LOTS of cow's milk in my morning coffee (it's more like coffee-flavoured milk at this point) and my observant lil' guy wanted to have some too.

From this...

To this!

I'm glad we made it this far and I'm looking forward to following baby E's lead on weaning off the boob. He's older now and understands when I ask him to 'wait' if I'm finishing up a task and he'll nurse after so we've got a good system going. He's got 10 teeth in but no biting yet (knock on wood!).

We're still co-sleeping and baby E nurses a few times at night, mostly without waking up and I'm vaguely aware that he's latched himself on and he rolls away when done so I don't squish him.

Last but not least, I have to say kudos to daddy E for being so supportive of us breastfeeding and co-sleeping. Because baby E kicks him mercilessly at night. We love you daddy E!