Thursday 27 February 2014

When to stop Breast feeding

As much as I love breast feeding I also feel like I hate it. As easy as it is I sometimes loath that I always fed the baby and that I never seem to get a break from it. I know that sounds incredibly selfish but I often feel like I have had enough (usually at 4am after trying to settle a baby back to sleep for the 5th time that night. Don't get me wrong I also love breast feeding, I love that I don't need to take anything with me and I can feed him anywhere I don't have to warm bottles its great. It just is so hard sometimes!

I dont always feel like this its just when Little bear is going through a clingy phase. We recently decided to introduce a bottle at night time to try and get him to sleep and so that my husband could feed him and put him to bed. Which was going well till all of a sudden out of know where he wont take a bottle. He gets cross spits the milk out and usually falls asleep out of exhaustion or I give in and fed him. I am not sure weather its an developmental age thing or he just wants mummy. He wont even take a dummy anymore.

So with that I am stuck breast feeding for the time being, I often wonder how good my milk is I am busy alot of the time and he seems to forever be feeding never getting full. Sometimes I see that little face suckling away and I am overcome with so much love, I remember when he was born and he latched on straight away I said to my mum "I cant see why anyone wouldn't want to breast feed its so beautiful". Its true the bond of giving your child nourishment is amazing it brings tears to my eyes thinking about it, I know not everyone can so I am so privileged.

Little bear was sleeping up to 8 hours at a time but all of a sudden has been waking up every few hours and we are unsure why? Last night he had no bottle and just breast milk and slept for nearly 8 hours then settled well after, but the few before he was awake alot!

So if you have any help or advice I would be happy to hear.

10 comments:

  1. I have no advice but I would of loved to breastfed my two girls! I just didn't want to at the time I am so gutted now though. x

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    1. There's loads of things i would have done different when looking back too but then we learn things as we go along! Thanks for commenting all the same 😃

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  2. How old is your babe? Probably a growth spurt? Keep going you are doing amazingly feeding and nurturing a little person, sometimes they just do wake, can you feed lying down? might help? Rest at all in the day? Do ask for any help from husband/partner/friend etc.......be very kind to yourself ( and if I can help at all I'd love too, have fed all of mine with various stories behind each) xxx

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    1. Ha thanks he is nearly 15 weeks, i often end up feeding laying down to wake hours later with him next to me, i have a 18 month old also so resting can be hard sometimes. Thanks for your help. 😃

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  3. And there is no shame in bottle/ breast feeding together.......although my husband always slept through the baby waking which kind of defeated the purpose of it! Keep going because when all goes mad you can have the "I'm feeding" excuse :-) x

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  4. Ha mine is the same,my issue is that he wont take a bottle all of a sudden, we are giving it a rest for a few days will try again next week the monkey x

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  5. I can really relate to what you are saying - it can feel like such a blessing and priveledge to breastfeed and yet I felt like my body din't belong to me and that felt exhausting. For me I struggled a lot when each of mine was between 3 and 6 months old getting to the point of almost quitting - but i was glad i stuck with it as the feeds then reduced and it felt easier from that point on. Especially once weaning started i didn't feel they were totally dependent on me. Mine all dropped their day milks by around 8 months and again that felt easier just to feed twice a day morning and evening. I think it is one of those decisions that however much advice others give you for or against, ultimately only you and your family will know what is right for you. Praying you get enough sleep and rest xxx

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  6. iv been trying to get ibrahim to take a cup in the day because i want to go back to work once a week. im having the same problem, he wont take the milk at all. iv just started weaning him but he sometimes doesnt want to eat. his six months now

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  7. I completely get this. Whilst it's wonderful to be able to feed your baby, you also feel a bit lke a feeding station and a bit trapped! Thanks for linking to PoCoLo x

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  8. Mine wouldn't take the bottle, so I gave him teats to play with so he wouldn't be so scared of it. The day we moved into our house, at 7mo, i couldn't possibly BF him, so i gave him an afternoon and night bottles. Somehow it worked! He then weaned himself of me one feed at a time. The day he pushed me away completely, he slept through the night for the first time, even though he had been on evening bottle for 2months at that stage, and still Bf at night! Now when he wakes up, it's either teeth, nightmares or the neighbour listening to his radio. At growth spurts time, they need more food so it could be that but i don't give food at night as i would be scared it becomes a bad habit. Good luck w yours, being a BF mum is v difficult, it's not recognised enough!

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