Today is the first day I haven't nursed Eleanor since she was born. It's both sad for me and a little bit of a relief. After all, this is the first time since November of 2007 that I'm not pregnant, trying to get pregnant, or breastfeeding. Yes, almost 3 years! I'm not planning to go out and do anything crazy, but it's just nice to know that no other human being depends on my body for a change.
Eleanor didn't even seem to notice the difference today. We had been down to only nursing first thing in the morning for about a month, and today I just brought her straight downstairs and gave her a cup of milk. She was perfectly fine with that. So I guess it's a bigger deal to me than it is to her!
I'm so glad that I nursed and glad that we did it for a whole year. I'll admit the first month or two there were times that it was rough, but we quickly got past that thanks to help from some wonderful people. It's just pretty cool to know that Eleanor went from this:
to this
(5 months)
with nothing but her Mama's milk. :) And of course, she's eaten LOTS of food since then and now enjoys whole milk:
So I now have some big plans. First of all, I can finally take care of a tiny spot of sun damage on my lip. And much more importantly, for the first time since July 21, 2009, I am going to SLEEP IN! Sure, there have been times that Hunter brought her to me in bed in the morning and then took care of her after she was done nursing, and there have been times that I fed her around 5 AM and then got to sleep until 8 or even 9, but those don't fully count. And yes, I could have pumped and let Hunter give her a bottle, but I never did that because it's more trouble than it's worth. (It's kind of like being absent as a teacher and coming up with sub plans - it's so much easier to just be there yourself!) So anyway, I am looking forward to Saturday! :)
1 comment:
Way to go! I nursed Sam for 13 months too! I was SO EXCITED when I was done because I love to not be the only one capable of feeding my child. I love the health benefits too. Sam NEVER went to the doctor except for well visits until he was 14 months old- other than jaundice his first two weeks. I agree that it is tough at first (we dealt with him being tongue tied and I pumped A LOT because it took a long time for his suck to develop to be strong enough. However, it was always encouraging to know that he was 95% for weight and that was totally based on just my milk. Congrats and I agree, SLEEP IN SATURDAY!!!! You deserve it!
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