More breastfeeding battles

I naively thought that breastfeeding was the easiest, most natural thing in the world.

With BB, I gave up after lack of support and supply issues made me feel like a failure.

With SB, I had wonderful support from a Breastfeeding Support Worker, The Breastfeeding Network and lovely mummies on Facebook groups.

With them, I have battled through a tongue tie, a lip tie, colic, having a needy baby and a young toddler and hard night after hard night.

But 10 months on, we still have issues.

Feeding an older baby comes with it's own stack of problems.

• Teething. He doesn't latch on properly when he's teething, so grumpy baby aside we have to struggle with oversupply issues, windy tummy and a sicky baby.
• Biting. Usually comes hand-in hand with teething, but with three sharp teeth, it's enough to bring tears to my eyes. He bites when his gums hurt, he bites when I offer milk and he doesn't want it, he bites when he's tired. If it's a cheeky bite, I take him off and pop him on the floor, but when he's tired and miserable I don't want to upset him more so I tend to ignore it.
• Distraction. A noisy two year old makes for difficult feeding! SB is more interested in watching BB running around than feeding. and if he is interested in booby, BB thinks it's hilarious to blow raspberries on his tummy, or tickle him, or get impatient because he wants to play with his brother and try and pull him off, because he's helpful like that.
• Judging. I got enough weird looks feeding a smaller baby, apparently feeding a 10 month old is past the limits of normal social behaviour...
• Nursing strikes. SB has recently gotten over tonsillitis, a scary time when he refused booby or bottle completely for three days, took tiny sips of water and refused to eat. He's only just getting back into the swing of feeding again, and it took 24 hours of constant feeding to get my supply back up.

But it's not all bad, don't let me put you off! Even with all of our battles, I still love feeding him. There's nothing like looking down into his eyes and him putting a pudgy hand on my face while he's feeding. I still get rushes of hormones when he has sleepy boob cuddles, and then drops off full and milk drunk.
We have no immediate plans to give up, despite the weird looks, I will give up when it is time for both of us, not when anybody else thinks it's time. I'm hoping it will get to a point where he chooses to wean himself, but we will see how it goes. We've fed on buses, boats and the tube, in taxis and cars leaning over his car seat, in aquariums, restaurants, and walking around the market in the sling. It suits us, and that's all that matters.