Wednesday, February 2, 2011

All Grown Up

It has been one week since my little girl needed to nurse.  She is now completely weaned.  She will be 15 months on Friday.  I started breastfeeding Elaine with the goal of making it to one year.  Elaine never took a bottle, and we never had to resort to formula.  A couple of times I left a bottle of “mommy milk” but she never drank it very well. 

I nursed Elaine both at home and in public.  I nursed her in airports and on airplanes, at church and at the mall.  I used a Bebe Au Lait nursing cover to keep everything modest, though Elaine never liked the cover very much.

It’s kind of sad to see our cuddle time diminish, but it’s also a little bit of a relief to be completed with that stage.  I don’t feel rejected or unneeded.  She needs me to make her oatmeal breakfast just as much as she needed me to nurse.  I think that our decision to stop nursing was a joint decision – I was ready to be done and had slowly been eliminating feedings since November.  But Elaine was also losing interest – nursing for shorter times, and so very easily distracted.

We have replaced our nighttime feeding with story time and a sippy cup of milk.  She seems to enjoy it just as much as she did nursing…and possibly more.  She loves books and is never content with just one story.

It’s also nice to give my body a little break before beginning this process again.  Baby #2 should debut in late June or early July.  I plan to breastfeed that baby as well.

Did you choose to nurse your baby?  How old was your little one when you weaned him/her?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I nursed Kayla until she was one and I loved every minute of it. I think I might have used formula a couple times in emergencies but that is all. I was having the same exact feelings as you are now. I would have nursed for longer if I wasn't pregnant with number two. :) It was wearing on my body and so my husband and I decided it would be best to have a little break before baby #2 arrived on the scene. I definitely plan to nurse with this one and look forward to it all again. Hope to meet this little guy in about 4 weeks.

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