I've written before about how I went into motherhood a reluctant breastfeeder and ended up a proud lactivist.

But as much as I support breastfeeding and the moms who do it, I must admit the vivid descriptions in this column, by a British woman who is still nursing her 4-year-old, had me cringing:

From the age of two, my daughter started to switch breasts – that is to say, she would no longer feed on one breast, then sedately take the other. She would switch, sometimes manically, between the two, because she had learnt that the let-down (the flow of milk) is faster if you stimulate the breasts in this way. It was also about this time that she started a habit I find extremely annoying to this day: twiddling. While she fed off one breast she would twiddle the other nipple, as if trying to tune in to a short wave radio station. Again, this was to stimulate the milk so that when she did latch on to the second breast, it was all ready to go.

What I loved about nursing was the closeness and the comfort. Manic switching and nipple-twiddling, on the other hand, don't sound the least bit relaxing to me. In fact, it doesn't sound as if it was very relaxing for the author:

I found feeding between the ages of two and four quite hard at times. She needed to feed a lot, sometimes 50 feeds a day, although they were quick. When we moved house, her feeding became almost frenzied, as if she thought I would leave her.

50 times a day??? Bless this mama's heart! I don't even think I was nursing my daughter 50 times a day when she was an infant...and there's no way I could have tolerated four years of that.

Ultimately, it sounds as if this mom has hung on to nursing as a way to pacify and comfort her daughter:

I'm not sure how I would have met her needs so quickly during this time without breastfeeding. And I'm not sure I could have parented during the terrible twos without it: it was like having an entire cavalry at your beck and call. Breasts are a powerful parenting tool.

I nursed my daughter for 14 months, and weaned her very gradually, as I was no longer making enough milk to satisfy her. Working full-time is not conducive to nursing, but I lasted longer than I expected and like to think my robust and healthy daughter reaped a lot of the benefits of mother's milk.

In retrospect, I wish I could have hung on until closer to her 2nd birthday (and plan to nurse a litle longer should I have another child). But in many ways, I was relieved to have my body back after 9 months of pregnancy and 14 months of nursing.

There are times I wish I could have those "powerful parenting tools" back...like when we're trapped on an airplane and my daughter is fussy and tired. There's nothing like sticking a boob in a fussy baby's mouth for instant peace and quiet.

But as my daughter quickly approaches her 3rd birthday, I can't imagine myself still nursing her, no matter how fond those memories. What about you ladies? For those of you who nursed, how did you decide when to stop? And for those of you who breastfed for an extended period of time, was it a conscious decision or an organic one? And when did you know it was time to wean?