God whose bloody business is it where your baby sleeps?! Makes me so mad. Your posts sound like you are writing about my OH's family. FIL has already asked twice when I am planning to stop breastfeeding. Find it really inappropriate that a middle aged man is asking me about how long I'm going to feed MY baby with my boobs . MIL helpfully informs me that I will HAVE TO stop before LO has teeth, like this is totally unheard of to feed a baby past 6 months....And oh my god, don't get me started on baby rice . I am so bl**dy sick of those 2 words, I wonder if I will ever be able to convince myself to feed it to our LO, even when he is old enough

Feels like you are damned if you do and damned if you don't being a mother. There's all this judgement at the beginning if you don't breastfeed, but then bam - 2 months down the line and people start asking when you are going to give it up - it's like they are convinced it cannot be enough for the baby. Babies have been breastfed since the cave men and if it wasn't done going back through time, the human race sure as hell wouldn't have survived all the way to the current age!

Right sorry, rant over! Happy breastfeeding ladies!

"ninny" I love it!!
I'm gonna start asking H if she wants ninny

I think you have hit the nail on the head with that. Family are saying that because I want to carry on breastfeeding for a bit after 6 months, I am possessive and over-protective - in reality I think this is them being worried about getting a 'look in' so they lash out with rude comments like this.

Had to laugh at ninny too...

This thread makes me feel better. I don't understand the question at all, why are people so concerned with how my child is being fed? I'm not interested in what they eat day in, day out. I also get "the face" when people realise we co-sleep.

And if I hear "Is she sleeping through yet?" one more time... No, she's not even 10 weeks old and she's breast fed. It is not something to brag about that your baby sleeps well. I actually think it's really arrogant to brag about it like it's a badge of good parenting... Molly sleeps well some nights, more often than not she's quite difficult to settle. It's nice to get a good night's sleep but having her here, happy and healthy is better still.

Also... and I don't want this to kick anything off for FFers reading as this is for BF support... but does anyone else see a thread like "he's sleeping through!" or "he's so settled... always happy and content, never cries" and think "FF then?!" I don't know, it would be so easy to get her to sleep through and have her be more contented if we went down that route but I do this for a reason and I sacrifice a lot to make it happen and people gloating about how easy they have it when they HAVEN'T been putting the same time and effort in really gets my goat. NB... this isn't to say FF mum's have it easy etc.

And, breathe

I HATE this idea of baby rice in a bottle before bed. If we as adults were struggling to settle to sleep or kept waking up in the night, we wouldn't go and eat solids immediately before sleeping, so why would you do that to a baby? You feel awful if you lay down to sleep after eating. Just the thought of having LO's belly full up with food in the middle of the night sounds awful, esp. when he's not used to the sensation. When he first tastes baby rice, he's having it during a meal time and not shoved in his bottle in a desperate attempt to quiet him down at night!

I also read recently that there is very little connection between adding baby rice before bed and how long they sleep. It is more driven by the baby's central nervous system developing to the point where they will happily sleep such a block, rather than just adding solids to their diet.

Yesterday... I was told by my bestfriends sister that hers was 'such a hungry baby' she 'didnt have enough milk' and her baby 'never got to going 4 or 6 hours between feeds or took a dummy like everybody elses' and she needed to 'get on with things and get out'

Truth is she gave 10 good weeks and had enough, and thats cool. My only real thought was I wish that she'd had BnB too - then she wouldnt have been talking to me like I'm a sucker for hoping to carry on myself.

Haha Femme, I feel bad enough when people ask me how Theo sleeps and I have to admit he sleeps 4 solid hours through the night...I mean its nothing I have "done" to make him like that...its just how he is! Of course he can make up for it in the day and feed constantly but I dont think about it because, to me, its all a part of having a baby. I dont expect him to ALWAYS go 3 or 4 hours between feeds because it would be silly and unrealistic but when I sit here (like yesterday) feeding him on and off for about six hours I get the "Oh well why dont you give him a bottle of formula, that will make him settle" Um...why? firstly...no it wont and secondly Im quite happy to sit here all day every day and feed him as much and as often as he wants if thats what he NEEDS.
There seems to be a lot of pressure about 'making' babies sleep through, ways to make them go longer between feeds, ways to stop them 'comfort' sucking (sorry, hate that phrase) etc and I dont get it. They sleep as long as they are capable of sleeping before being hungry, at which point they wake up and ask for food....they will only 'sleep through' when they are ready for it and not beforehand so whats the deal with trying to "force" it with the millions of methods that are out there (and the feeding babies before bed/adding rice/rusks etc to bottles REALLY peeves me) Simply some babies sleep better, others dont. Im grateful that I have a good sleeper but I will freely admit it makes my life easier than a mother of a baby who wakes every 2 hours through the night, greatest respect to those who do, my last one was up every hour to two hours for the first5 weeks and then suddenly started sleeping 7/8 hours straight...without the need for any 'magic cure' people advise others to try.
Funny actually thinking about it most people ask me "Is he a good baby" and I say "yes hes great" and it always seems to revolve around the fact that he sleeps well at night....only just realised that...hope that doesnt mean people think it makes them "bad" babies if they wake up every hour or two....I mean, its normal!

I'm not really talking about 4 hours. That's normal, good and Molly most nights, it's the my baby sleeps from 8-8 and always has crew... it can't be healthy, surely?

I hate "sleeping through the night" questions. TECHNICALLY, sttn means a 5 hour stretch. Technically, ADULTS don't even sleep right thru, from 7 till 7 or whatever. And the way a lot of people ask, as if you are some kind of failure if your kid DOESN'T conform to their idea of a "good baby". Grr!

I wish sttn would just VANISH from all parenting literature and conversations. It's the most irritating phrase EVER, after "are you STILL bfdg? when are you going to get that kid on a bottle?"

ARGH.

I've been thinking about this.
Negative re-enforcement isn't it.