SO! As some of you may know, I'm not in the best place in my life right now. My fiancé and I live in separate houses leaving me with the baby most of the time. He lives with his family, and I live with mine. As with every family, there will be disagreements. The most recent (and annoying) thing I keep being told is by my own grandmother, who lives under the same roof as me. She keeps telling me that I need to stop pumping soon... Like what the heck?? First of all, for those who don't know, I am an exclusive pumper. Pumping has become practically my life. It's the form of breastfeeding that has worked the best for me and my lil man. Second of all, my baby will be only 8 months old on Tuesday! He's not even close to a year old yet, which seems to be the assumed age of when mothers "should stop breastfeeding." As we all know, breastfeeding doesn't have a magical age where it stops being beneficial. For me to be CONSTANTLY told that I need to stop pumping soon is driving me NUTS! And no matter what I do to stand up for it, I'm constantly told that my SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH has NOTHING on how many years of experience she has! There is no correlation there, lol... It's not even worth arguing over anymore. I made it to my first goal of six months, and my next goal is a whole year. But why stop there when I've come this far? What about being 365 days old makes breastmilk any less beneficial than being 364 days old? I'm going to keep pumping no matter what my family thinks of it because it's my responsibility to provide for my baby, and I see breastmilk as being a key factor in that. It's my baby, my body, my decision. I just needed to let off some steam, since I know I'm not the first person to be "harassed" by family members when it comes to ending the breastfeeding...
@madibug96, exactly! Honestly my fiancé and I want to start trying for a baby until next June so it'd be really cool if I can continue pumping until my next baby is born to already have a stock for him/her and to say I breastfed for a lot of years straight. 💪🏼
grandmother's always think they know best, but in this case I'd just tune her out. you're absolutely correct! pumping works best for us too and I'm working on getting my milk up. that goal of 6 months is a good one, I didn't think to set goals! I say pump as long as you choose! there's babies that breastfeed until they can speak!