Extending Nursing

Hi My name is Jessica and I am an extended nurser. There I said it...My little girl is almost 16 months old has been a great nurser almost since day one. A friend of mine asked me the other day how it worked with nursing her now, so I thought this would be a great time to blog about how it works for me. I know a lot of mama's out there that are extended nursers and my hats are off you to.

Honestly when I first became pregnant I knew I wanted to nurse but I wasn't sure how long. I had some people telling me "oh just wait until she gets teeth" or "oh just wait until you go back to work". Nursing was a lot of hard work but I wouldn't change a thing. It's something that I am blessed to be able to provide for my child. There are a lot of mama's out there that aren't able to do this and I have been lucky enough to nurse her even after I have stopped pumping.

I know I have blogged about this in the past a lot, but the first few months were tough. Actually the first few weeks were really tough and I almost quit so many times! I can't count how many times I sat in my glider in Gabby's room holding her and crying my eyes out. Either it was painful, she wouldn't/couldn't latch, or I just had no freaking clue what I was doing. With the strength and support of my husband, friends and the lactation consultant however I made it through.

I pumped for about a year and while that took a lot of sacrifice I am glad I didn't give up. I was lucky enough to have a job that was flexible and allowed me to work from home a few days a week to work pumping into my schedule. Plus my office had a great mother's room. All things that helped out. When I first started out I knew that I wanted to nurse her for 6 months to a year. I knew that I would pump until then and when I could switch her to whole milk that I would stop pumping. I never really thought about anything after that. As time went on I decided that I was going to 18 months (Which will be this coming February) for nursing. Now however I really don't have an end point. I decided to leave it up to my little one and have her wean herself when she is ready - which let me tell you is no time soon.

Gabby is very opinionated in her little 15 month old self. She knows what she wants and she makes sure you are aware of it. We taught her the sign for milk, but she never uses it anymore. She created her own sign for nursing and if you don't listen to her she goes over to the couch or the glider in her room and points to it and then to me. She knows that I am the only one that can nurse her and if I still don't listen to her she comes over and climbs into my lap and tries to pull up my shirt. I have to say its the cutest thing ever to have my little one communicate with me and tell me what she wants.

And up until two days ago she wouldn't take a sippy of milk from me except if we were leaving from daycare. Its actually not as much nursing as it used to be. I have to say that when I would hear someone was nursing their toddler I couldn't imagine it. How can you nurse a child 5 to 6 + times a day when they are older. It didn't make sense to me. As Gabby has gotten older her nursing has gotten less and less, so it's even easier now than it used to be.

When she was first born she was nursing all the time. There were times when she would even cluster feed, every hour for like 6 to 7 hours. It was tough, but we got through it. We got through the over supply issues, we got through her getting teeth, got through how her ear infections affected it. Now I only nurse her a few times a day, sometimes more on the weekends, but it's a great time for the two of us to be together.

Our schedule is pretty easy. During the week she wakes up between 4:30 and 6:30. I nurse her and if it's anytime earlier than 6:00 she usually goes back to sleep. She then eats breakfast while we get her lunch ready for the day. She has anywhere from 8 to 16oz of whole milk, plus her mid day snack and lunch. When she gets home from daycare we have dinner and then around 7:00 or so we get ready for bed and I nurse her one last time before she goes to bed and we repeat. On the weekends it's a lot of the same, except she usually just nurses from me instead of getting the whole milk.

It is a pretty easy schedule and I have a feeling as she gets older it will be easier as we go. If you made it this far thanks for reading all the way through! A hats off to all the mama's that are extender nursers, all the SO's and supporters out there that help these mama's make it so far! and even a hats off to just all the mama's that provide for their little ones.