Monday 31 August 2020

Breastfeeding Baby #3: The 18th Month

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My personal view on how long to breastfeed is this: my baby must be fully 100% breastfed until 12 months old, after which to continue depending on the willingness of mother and baby. 

Hence, for all my babies, they were fully breastfed till they were 12 months old. My firstborn decided she wanted to continue, with no signs of stopping, until she turned 18 months old as I had started work and my supply probably dipped to nothing (I didn't pump at work). My boy decided to stop latching when he turned 13 months old and I decided it was not worth the effort to continue pumping at work so I stopped. As a result, I have never breastfed for longer than 18 months.

My littlest girl is nothing like her sister and brother. She does not have a favorite pillow and does not like the pacifier. The only thing that brings her comfort and helps her to sleep is my boobs, which are both the pillow and pacifier to her! 🤱

My 18-month-old littlest baby girl

At 18 months old, the littlest baby is showing no signs of stopping. When I'm at home or in the room, the littlest can only sleep when I nurse her. And with Work From Home being the default arrangement these days, she now has 24-hour access to my milk! I hardly ever use my breast pump anymore!

However, this also means that almost every night, I am rudely awaken from my slumber very often. Maybe it's a bad dream or teething pains; but she often wakes up in the middle of the night wanting to breastfeed. After 18 months of sleep deprivation, somehow my body has learnt to survive on disrupted sleep! 😴


Nevertheless, I know from experience that this is only a very short episode in my journey of motherhood. Very soon my baby will not be a baby anymore and when I look back, I will miss the time when my baby only wanted me and no one else! What a privilege it is to receive the absolute 100% pure love of a child! 😍

My little cutie 😍

Many people have asked me out of curiosity on when I am going to stop breastfeeding. Frankly, I don't know. I've never had to force my kids to stop before (they have always decided when to stop) so this is new to me. I'm torn between wanting to continue being the comforter to my girl and also wanting back the freedom to wear my favourite dresses that have been collecting dust (quite literally) since I got pregnant! But I don't think I have the heart to tell her no when she wants to breastfeed. I'll just have to take each day as it comes 😊

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