bye bye, breastfeeding

Side nursing newborn G. Such a tiny baby with scrawny, wrinkled legs!

G and I had our last nursing session this morning. I've already boo-hoo'd several times this week about weaning, so I managed to hold it together this time. I'm really sad about it, but I'm beyond ready. We've nursed through sore nips, plugged ducts, and milk blisters the past few months, and my body is just done. It's worn out and ready to get the hormones back to normal.

We've had a few rough days with transitioning G to whole cow's milk, but his digestive system seems to be handling it just fine. He fought drinking milk out of his straw sippies, so we bought a couple of regular sippies and found one he liked. The milk doesn't come out too fast for him with this one, so he can gulp how he likes and not drown. Plus, it has a pirate on it!

He hardly ever fights the sippy now, which is awesome. He doesn't like drinking much in his highchair, but if you sit him on his lap, leaning back against you, he'll drink a good bit more. So we cuddle after each meal, and I don't feel like we're missing too much of the closeness we had breastfeeding.

Am I sad? Sure, I'm very sad the nursing is over. But I feel so accomplished. We nursed for 12 months and 3 weeks when I never thought I'd really nurse past 6 months. I'm so so happy that I could give G the best nutritional start possible, and I'm thankful that, overall, we really didn't have any major issues.

I've never though it weird to nurse G beyond the early months. Really, if I hadn't had these recent body troubles and the need to get my hormones back in order, I would have kept nursing longer, at least a few more months.

This morning, we nursed for the last time. He played with my hair and nursing top. He's been too big for the boppy pillow, so he's mostly just nursed while sitting in my lap, resting his head on my arm. I picked up one of his feet, sniffed his toes, and made a big deal about his stinky his feet were. He loves that. After I did that once, he kept raising his foot for me to do it again or nibble on his toes. I tickled his belly, neck, and ears, and he grabbed my hand to get me to do it again. I thought he was done, so I sat up, but he dove back down again to nurse some more.

It'll be a bit harder to get him to go to sleep now, but we actually didn't have any problems getting him to go to bed last night. He even fell asleep in his crib with just my hand rubbing his back. Naps are more difficult, but so far so good. I'm actually kind of excited that this phase is over - another sign that my baby is growing up!