Giulia’s Breastfeeding Story

“I knew I wanted to breastfeed, but if you would’ve asked me, I would’ve probably told you that I was going to stop around six months because that’s how I thought it was. I know that it’s not true [now], but in my head, when they start to eat solids, you stop breastfeeding.
Then he was born and oh my God, it was rough at the beginning. I did not expect the pain. And [in] the beginning [my] milk wasn’t coming. He was so hungry all the time. And my husband was worried. I mean this is all in the first three days, right?
So my husband left in the middle of the night to go to a pharmacy to get some formula. And I was panicking. He’s not going to breastfeed. Am I failing? The amount of worry that I had about it, I was clearly overreacting, right? Because he barely had any formula and actually, my milk came [in] on the fourth day.
There was a month [that] was quite stressful. He was crying on the breasts all the time and latching unlatching, latching unlatching. Things started to get better probably around [the] six month [mark].When six months came, I had read so much. My mind was set on breastfeeding him on demand until at least one.
He has never been a great sleeper. I was breastfeeding him to sleep and around 11 months I started to co-sleep. So I told myself; ‘Why would I wean him now? He’s going to stop on his own.’ I was [finally] sleeping much better.
While before having him, I thought, at six months I’m going to stop. Now, I’m more like, he’s gonna stop when he is ready.”