From one extreme to the other, you know, and was looking for it quite often and he would've been a long feeder, you know? And you nearly just did feel sometimes that's what you're doing nearly all day when my husband went out I was feeding, when he came in I was feeding, whenever he left to go out again I was feeding, but I just felt as if I wanted to breastfeed and I thought, 'Well I'll go on'. Initially as I say my, my sister-in-law, she had done it for four months and I thought, 'Well if I could do it for that length of time' I didn't know how long you can breastfeed for, I went to the feeding group and there was a girl there and her child was, I think nearly two, and there was other mothers and, and their children were six months and eight months and I thought, 'Oh you can still feed to that length of time' and whenever it got to four months I thought, 'Well I'll go on to six months, I don't have to change the formula milk, to follow on milk', and I got to six months and it just, the routine then just kept on going and then I thought, 'Well I'll go to the year and I'll just put them on cow's milk' and that's what I did.
So you set yourself little milestones?
Yes.
How did you feel as a young mother with a little baby when you saw the nearly two year old feeding, do you remember, were you shocked? Interested, just astounded?
Yeah I think kind of, I think kind of surprised, you know, I think whenever you think of breastfeeding you do think of babies and sometimes whenever you see a youngster running around initially you kind of think, “Oh my goodness”, I know a lot of ones it's, they think, what about the teeth? And, you know, they kind of think once they have teeth that's it no more breastfeeding but we would have, I'd say half the group, and there's new mums come in and they see how long we have been breastfeeding for, and we're also trying to encourage some mums in the antenatal classes, there's a few of us from the breastfeeding group will go now at the time when they do the breastfeeding talk and they can ask us questions, and that's one, one question I asked, one of the mums is, “What do you think when you see my daughter sitting there?” You know, because at that stage she was about thirteen months, I said, “What do you think?”
And what did they say?
One of them said, “Well, it could be for you, it wouldn't be for me but if you want to do it that's alright” and I says, “Well to tell you the truth I never thought it'd be for me either” and because I'd fed my son on for the year I thought I'd try and feed my daughter for the year too. Whenever it came to the time she was the year, it was winter time my son was bringing home colds and whatnot from the school, I thought she would still be getting the benefits of it, she did have the cold but it never settled on her chest and I thought, 'Well I'm giving her the resistance to this', so I, thought 'I'd feed her on till they got over this, and then she was due her MMR jab so it was 'I'll feed her on until after this' and then I'll feed her on to the two weeks later in case she reacts.
Can we just go back to an earlier topic about seeing an older child feeding.
Uh-huh.
You wanted to tell me a bit more about that.
Whenever you're starting off to breastfeed and you have all those number of feeds and for the length of time and all the rest of it, you sort of assume that that's how it will always be, whereas whenever they get older they might feed for less and sometimes they might feed maybe slightly more frequently in some ways but, like I feed her in the morning but she gets very easily distracted sometimes, you know, and it's maybe a quick feed and up and then she'll maybe be looking another quick feed maybe, you know, at the end of break, whenever we have breakfast, but if we're out in the middle of the day she can go now without that feed, you're not, you know, rushing home to get that feed so even though she's up and plus some people have said because she was quite dainty, you know, she didn't look like a big child, you know, that I'm feeding, she still looked like a wee, wee baby type thing [laughs], but whenever they get they're, they're feet, you know, it is sort of a strange thing seeing a child run over, but it's nice in some ways for me if she comes, you know, she gets me to the seat, and she, I would support my breast whenever I'm feeding her, I didn't feel comfortable just holding her, so I felt more comfortable if I was always supporting the breast you know getting it into her better and she would come up so I had a pillow there, so I would've had a pillow, so she would go and she'll, you know, she'd tell me to sit down and she'd maybe go get the pillow and then look up, you know, for a quick feed but the, during the day she could be running about, that's more at night time like if I'd been out at that, a meeting in the school and come in, you know, it was, “My time mummy”, for a feed before I go to bed.
So most people would probably not know that you were feeding an older child because it's happening in the home or…
Yes.
…at times when it's not visible…
Yes.
…is that what you're saying to me?
That's what I'm saying, no it's not visible.
It's not as though you're doing it all over the place everywhere for people to see?
No.
It's a private thing?
It's a private thing, it, whenever I'm feeding her it usually is at home, in the morning, before I go, she goes to bed, and I say maybe sometimes in the middle, if we're at home, it depends if she's, if she hasn't looked for the morning feed, you know, if she's gone for breakfast and then gone elsewhere, you know, sometimes the feed in the middle of the day, sometimes that's maybe a comfort feed, if you know she's tired, she's nearly at the stage whenever she'll climb out of the cot if she doesn't want to be in the cot, sometimes you think, 'Well if I get her over into sleep and then put her up in, you know, and she'll be over to sleep well, or we'll go for a walk, we go to meet my son off the bus, so we walk down and back up again so she falls asleep in the buggy', you know, it's just, you just play it be ear if she's looking for it or not. |
