23 January 2016

Celebrating a Whole Year of Breastfeeding!


There's been lots of celebrating going on recently with Logan's birthday in December, then Harlow's 1st birthday in January and now I'm celebrating a whole year of breastfeeding. It's quite an achievement if I do say so myself!

Breastfeeding is always something I've wanted to do for my children and I was lucky enough that after giving birth my milk came through for both of my kids. I breastfed Logan for a whole year and stopped just after the new year of 2010 as I was going back to work and felt our breastfeeding journey was ready to come to a close. With Harlow I'm just not sure if I'm ready to give up breastfeeding yet. The other half and I aren't going to have any more babies so she's my last which means no more breastfeeding after her. This makes me feels kind of sad in a way as I've enjoyed breastfeeding both of my kids. Don't get me wrong it hasn't always been smooth sailing but it's something I wanted to do so I've stuck with it throughout.

Harlow and I are at the stage where she feeds when she feels the need to and I feed her when she's looking for a comfort. I know this may be my downfall when I try to wean her but it works for us at the moment. So when she slips and bumps her head, is grumpy and tired or like recently when she had her latest set of immunisations, the boob gets whipped out and breastfeeding solves all. For the moment anyway.

I feel I've enjoyed breastfeeding a lot more this time round as I've not been as worried about feeding in public. With Logan I was very self conscious and practically terrified of breastfeeding in public so avoided it whenever I could. I'm not sure why I feel differently this time but after the first month or so of feeding Harlow I felt confident to feed her anywhere and wasn't bothered what people would think. Just the other day in fact we attended a new baby group and Harlow was grumping for a feed so even though we were all sitting in a circle facing each other I still propped her up on my crossed legs and fed her. No one was even bothered, not that it would have mattered but it shows how sometimes your fears of what other people will think are actually unfounded. I know you do get the odd crack pot though who wants to shame breastfeeding mothers but they can go die in a hole somewhere with their crap attitude.

I've lost so much weight after having Harlow and although sensible eating has definitely played a part I'm sure breastfeeding has as well. I'm worried that when I stop breastfeeding I won't be able to eat all of my tasty treats without piling the weight back on again. I've lost a good 3 stone at least and seriously don't want to find the numbers on my scales creeping up when I stop breastfeeding. I suppose I'm kind of in limbo. I know I don't have to breastfeed anymore but I still quite like doing it plus I'm a bit scared to stop. On the other hand when I do stop I know I'll be able to wear whatever I want without thinking how quickly can I access my boobs for feeding time. Maybe I should focus on that when it comes to weaning Harlow off the breast.

Here are some of my breastfeeding photos from the past year for you to take a nosy at.








2 comments on "Celebrating a Whole Year of Breastfeeding!"

Farmer's wife and mummy on 23 January 2016 at 19:38 said...

That is such an amazing story. I tried and failed with both of mine and it is my biggest regret. I love the tartan scarf and what a beUtiful baby and mummy x

The Breastest News on 23 January 2016 at 19:43 said...

Aww hugs Emma. Breastfeeding is such hard work but you gave it your best so it's not failing really. I'm sure you tried hard and no one can ask more of you than that :) And I bet your babies are still happy and healthy 👍

Thank you xx

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