Breastfeeding Baby #3: Beyond 2 Years, Ending at 30 Months!

I never thought that I will still be breastfeeding my Littlest Girl past 2 years old!

I'm a breastfeeding purist (i.e. only full breast milk and no formula) for the 1st year of each of my child's life; however, once my babies turned 1 year old, I will usually wean them by starting them on formula. Why? Because I'm a full-time working mum who really did not enjoy a toddler biting my you-know-where or pumping constantly at the office. It's a good to have but not necessary.

Slowly but surely, my two older children would realise that I didn't have any more breast milk and decide on their own to stop breastfeeding. The Eldest Girl decided to stop nursing at 18 months old when I went back to work full-time while the Boy stopped abruptly at 13 months old.

Not my Littlest Girl! It has been more than a year of drinking formula but my Littlest has not given up on breastfeeding! Perhaps the situation was also special this time as she had access to me throughout the day since I was working from home since Circuit Breaker last year. Even though she has finished a bottle of formula milk, she would still climb on me and 'beg' me to breastfeed her. She is very determined and I find it hard to refuse her! 😅

However, because my Littlest Girl has started preschool in April this year, we needed to transition her to less reliance on breastfeeding.

I started by slowly reducing the number of daytime feeds, breastfeeding her only in the morning and at night. She seemed to be ok with it so I removed her morning feed as well, replacing it with formula milk and other food.

For a month, she was only breastfeeding at night before bed as I wasn't able to remove her night-time feeds because she relied heavily on breastfeeding in order to sleep. I also wanted it to be a gradual process and did not believe in going 'cold turkey' (I'm a psychologist you know).

Slowly, by May, she was only breastfeeding every alternate night before bed (or when I couldn't get her to sleep!). She also no longer woke up in the middle of the night to nurse! 🥳🥳🥳

By June, she was only nursing whenever she needed comfort, though I barely have any milk left!

Sometime around July I stopped breastfeeding her completely and she seems to get by just fine without it.

Once in a while she would put her face on my chest, take a deep breath and say "boob, boob!" Don't ask me where she learnt it, I don't remember teaching her to say this! In response I would say, "no more, mummy doesn't have any more milk" and she would take it in her stride and did not pursue the matter further.

With that, I've breastfed my littlest baby for 30 months, the longest I've ever breastfed at one go! In total, I've breastfed for 5 years! 😊

And here's signing off on my breastfeeding diary series. Thanks for joining me on my journey.

P.S: if you are struggling with breastfeeding, feel free to reach out. I can't say for sure that I can solve your problems but I can certainly lend an empathetic ear if you need one. Stay strong and press on!! You can do this 💪🏻

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This post is part of my series My Breastfeeding Diary, where I document the highs and lows of my breastfeeding journey.

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Saturday, 31 July 2021

Breastfeeding Baby #3: Beyond 2 Years, Ending at 30 Months!