My Miracles

I know I mentioned the fact that Anna is being weaned in my last post but it's something that is very much a part of my life right now.

Anna has never been a great breastfeeder. Around 3 and a half months she went on a nursing "strike" refusing to breastfeed at all except during the overnight and the first feeding in the morning. She did that for a week and a half. Before that she would fuss every time to latch on, which made nursing in public impossible. After the strike though she really seemed to "get it" and didn't fuss to latch on anymore! From then on she was really good but around 6 months she started refusing feedings or feeding for very short periods. By 9 months she had cut herself down to 3- 5 minute feedings during the day and a bottle before bed. There was not much I could do about it but she continued to grow and gain weight (I think my milk has a pretty high fat content) so the doctor told us it was fine. I am glad that Anna has breastfed this long. My goal was always to go 6-9 months with 12 months being the ideal. There were several times when I didn't think we'd make it but we have come this far!

At 9 months we decided that since we made it that far we really wanted to try to wean straight to milk and skip formula altogether. The doctor had told us that if we weaned after 10 months we could do that. I wanted to wait to start giving her milk in her cup until 11 months but we started making her cereal with whole milk at about 10.5 months. We also started giving her breastmilk in a cup (thus eliminating a feeding) at the same time. At 11 months we eliminated the second daytime feeding and she started having 1-1.5 cups of breastmilk and half to one cup of whole milk. This week I stopped pumping in the mornings and she is getting whole milk in her cups for lunch, snack and dinner. She still breastfeeds in the morning and will continue that for awhile. She also will continue to get breastmilk in her bedtime bottle until there is none left. Next week I will stop pumping at night and we'll just use the frozen supply till it's gone (probably 2-3 weeks).

It's a bittersweet time. On one hand I am proud that we came this far and to some extent am happy to be getting my life (and my body!) back, but on the other hand, those were sweet times to just sit and be quiet and cuddle with my baby. I will still have the mornings, and I think that one will be hard for me to give up! I will NOT miss pumping twice a day! Actually it has been somewhat strange to get back that hour in my morning. I have decided to use it to exercise. I have started doing Wii Fit in the morning and hope to continue! Once I am doing better at that (I am SO out of shape) I will move on to pilates. I don't know what I'll do with the hour in the evening, probably relax. That one will be really strange, as I have been pumping every evening for much longer! There were times when I would skip a morning session but I never skipped an evening session! I am looking forward to being done though with that but I am glad that because of that she will get my milk a bit longer.

Breast really is BEST!