Sunday, May 4, 2014

Breastfeeding Update: 9 months

We have now been breastfeeding for nine months.

 In the nine months I have had mastitis three times!  The last time was right before Easter.  That is no fun.  In addition, Charlotte has recently popped a tooth through the gums.  With Owen we did not make it to the point he cut a tooth, which happened at 11 months.  Charlotte tends to bite and I am desperately trying to stop that habit.

Charlotte still does not drink out of a bottle, and at this point there is no point in trying.  I have tried pumping and I now only get half an ounce to an ounce of milk from each side.  Charlotte still nurses about every four hours during the day and about 5 at night.  However, she does comfort nurse before naps, bed, and during the night.  One night she slept for 7 hours straight and I had to wake her up and feed her because my shirt was soaked.  It is sort of bitter sweet.  I am glad she is growing and amazed we have made it nine months already.  I am glad that I am past the point where I leak through pad after pad, but it is sad because I do not want our breastfeeding journey to end.  (although I would like to have my body back and not have bite marks and mastitis.)

I am happy we made it this long without any major problems and look forward to continuing this adventure.

2 comments:

  1. How long do you plan to keep going? Our goal was 6 months, then we had issues with her taking the bottle so we aimed for 12 months . By then we had our routine so established (morning comfort nursing basically) that we just kept going until I couldn't nurse her in the mornings because of morning sickness!! I think I would have gone until she stopped. I think 9 months was the toughest part because she started eating more and nursing less and everyone started encouraging us to quit.

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  2. My goal was 12 months. She also does not take a bottle. I am not going to say "Oh, it is your birthday, no milk for you." I will let her nurse until she is done.

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