As we near the end of my series about Breastfeeding, I decided it was time to share my own story.

My name is Brandy and I am a mother of three. I am uncertain what made me decide to breastfeed my first born, but that was my decision. I know looking back I must have known it was a healthier choice, a lower cost choice and that it would also benefit me in losing some pregnancy weight faster. Also I do recall her father was a bit pushy about the subject, feeling it was the best for his first born child.

Whatever the reasons were, I chose to breastfeed my lovely first born. I took breastfeeding classes while pregnant, had a lactation consultant come to my home to help, and my aunt T-L stopped by to help support me in my decision to breastfeed since she had breastfed before she was able to help Ki latch on and I must admit I am thankful for the times she helped me in my struggles to breastfeed.

I nursed Miss Ki for about 9 months, when she finally decided the bottle was her thing – apparently once they get a taste of that fast flowing something out of the bottle – they no longer want to work at suckling on a breast.

Next came my second born, my dear first boy, AJ. I honestly was NOT happy to be pregnant with him, because of so many other reasons not pertaining to this story. I only nursed him for 8 weeks, I chose to nurse him because “I am a breastfeeding Mama”, but chose to stop nursing him because he was a “big piggy wiggy baby”. I couldn’t keep up with feeding his big appetite. This boy came into the world at 9lbs 5oz and just went up from there, we actually called him Chunk most of his baby life.

After only 8 weeks of nursing AJ, he ended up with a TON of health problems. Now some will argue this could be genetic, or just a matter of his health – but I tend to lean towards the fact that I only nursed him for 8 weeks, and have given myself a hard time about it. AJ had super bad ear infections most of his life, was always very grumpy, and just had a slew of other “issues” {even today}. I fear him only getting 8 weeks of breast milk was to blame, but everyone tells me to quit thinking that way. As a mom we give ourselves the worse guilt trip over things I swear!

Now we have our Baby K, he is my third born child, second born son. Of course after all the health issues with AJ we decided I would certainly nurse Baby K {who was born at 9lbs 4oz} for a lot longer so as to try to avoid any health problems. Here it is May 2, 2009 and I am still nursing Baby K is almost 9 months old. He is starting to act like his sister did at this age – wanting the bottle more and not the breast. It drives me crazy but I guess I will just start pumping again using my new Evenflo Comfort Select Dual Performance Breast Pump, so Baby K can get some breast milk in bottle rather than juice or formula.

That’s my breastfeeding story – what’s yours?

Here are some stories and reviews you should read if you have not kept up with my series, please comment on any you enjoy reading – I do love reading every single comment and if the post was from a guest writer they will love to read comments too:

• Great Book – If These Boobs Could Talk
• With Child Maternity & Baby Boutique
• Breastfeeding Twins: One Moms Story
• One Mom’s Breastfeeding Story
• Making the Decision To Breastfeed