When he was about 2 months old I had enough. I was tried of pumping and nursing him. I despised the pump. One day I called my hubby at work and told him I was done with bottles. I drove him to the doctor to be weighed and spent the next two days forcing him to only nurse. He cried, I cried and he finally got it and we got a good latch. I did have some help from an LC but I think it just clicked for him one day. Once I got him latched he would get very impatient waiting for let down. The LC came back and showed me the SNS system. I could not use it; I did not have enough hands. I instead filled a bottle and would dribble milk on the corner of his mouth and that calmed him until the let down happened. I had to continue pumping some because I was producing WAY more than he ate. I started pumping just enough to make me comfortable with the hope of adjusting my supply. The next problem we had was his frustration at my super strong let down (from all the pumping). I learned to take him off and let the milk spray into a towel and then re-latched him.
I am very proud to say that by the time he was 2 1/2 months old he was exclusively breastfed (from the tap).
I returned to work at 4 months and pumped once again while at work. I nursed him on my lunch break and evenings, nights, and weekends. I was only working 4 days at first and that helped. He easily went back and forth between breast and bottle. He also did some reverse cycling (nursing lots at night) which was fine with me since we co-sleep.
I am very proud that he had nothing but mother’s milk. I worked very hard at this and it remains one of my biggest mothering accomplishments.
Peanut nursed until he weaned at about 3 1/2 years old!
William Nursing about 2 years old
