The end of the beginning....

at 17 1\2 months my sweet baby girl, has stopped nursing.

I'm happy, and a little sad
I'm glad to be done, but right now, I miss our sweet moments together

For now, Mike is doing bedtime with her, just so she transitions a bit more smoothly, but I look forward to holding her, rocking and reading to her again soon.

We went away this past weekend, and I was really nervous about leaving her, but she has only been nursing 1x a day for quite a while now. She did great!! I took my pump with me and pumped, but decided, I'd just wait when we got back to see if she asked for it.

She didn't.. and it's time.

It's the end of the beginning she and I had together
but that just means a new beginning is starting.


Thank you Lord for giving us this sweet girl and for allowing us the privilege and honor of raising her.

Quite the imagination...

When I work at school, I always come home for about a 1\2 hour so I can nurse Ruby, mostly because she won't take a bottle anymore. Today, I came home and Levi asked why I was home, so I told him. The next thing I know, he's got his shirt up, holding his Elmo, that he is recently obsessed with, trying to nurse him.

I about died.

So, we talked about how God made Mama's and Papa's and how only Mama's can make milk, etc etc. 

The next thing I know he's disappeared downstairs.He'd gone downstairs, gotten a sippy cup with milk, come back up holding the cup to his nipple, and attempting to nurse his Elmo.

oh. my. stars. 

I had tears I was laughing so hard.

uncharted territory

i'm still nursing levi.

he's 12 1\2 months and we're still going strong.

that's a new one for me. i never thought i'd make it this long. you can ask mike, he thought for sure i'd stop eventually. from the beginning i told myself i'd give it 6 months. no questions, no "what ifs" no, it'd only be easier if's... i was just going to do it for that long before i considered anything else... lo and behold by the time i got to 6 months it was so easy, that i never thought twice about doing anything else.

so now he's a year, and i keep getting asked if i'm still nursing him.
i say yes, and i get "the look"
you know

"the look"

the one that screams...
oh, you're one of those crazy, all natural, cloth diapering, baby wearing, kind of people...

i don't really know what to say to that, other than, yes i am. no i don't plan on nursing him forever, but i'll do it until he seems like he's not interested anymore, and right now, we're doing just fine. he nurses twice a day, early morning and then again before he goes to bed.
i have been considering dropping one feeding, but i'm not sure how to go about that. he seems so content right now, and i don't want to mess with it, but it's just a little bit of a thought i have at the moment.

how long did you nurse your kiddos?
did they wean naturally or did you wean them?

i'd love to know what other mama's have done.

on strike

This kid of ours has decided the world is too interesting to eat. Why take the time, right? Too many grand things to see and explore. I would say that 80% of the time, he does not seem interested in nursing. I have no idea what has caused this new occurence, but I can tell you I am extremely frustrated. I've read up on it, and I wonder if perhaps it's what they call a "nursing strike"?

Sounds kind of funny doesn't?

I have this visual of nurses in white dresses
and hats walking around with picket signs, but I digress...

He wants to snack, not eat. I don't know if it's the hotter weather that has caused this phenomenon, or what, but I'm frustrated with it. Most of the time, eating ends in a screaming match. The only times he eats well are in the morning when he wakes up and in the evening when he goes to sleep.

So I hit the checklist.
1) Has my diet changed? NO
2) Has there been an extreme schedule change? NO
3) Is he teething? Possibly? He stuffs everything into his mouth, but i dont' see or feel any teeth.
4) Ear infection? He doesn't seem fussy or to be running a fever.
5) Cold? I don't think so.
6) I wonder if he just wants more than milk to eat. He is just getting one bowl of cereal right now, and I'm afraid that if I try to do more then he'll be even less interested in nursing. So for now, I keep forcing the issue, and figure he'll eat when he's hungry, though I am worried about my milk production.....

The only thing I can think of is that I hadn't been taking a prenatal vitamin, I kept forgetting to buy them. I started taking them again, and I wonder if that's changed things... maybe? I don't know.

Seriously? When did I talk like this before having a kid?
All decency goes out the window, I swear.