No More Milk!

Today was a milestone for both me and Lukas. Today was the day that I stopped breastfeeding. It's been 16 months since Lukas was born. It's something that I have been sharing with Lukas for every day of his life. I hear that it can be difficult for some babies to wean. Lukas, as usual, was easy. The morning feeding was the last one that we had because I had heard from friends that the evening one would be harder to give up (not at all for Lukas) and because I could at least sleep while nursing in the morning. (If I can do 2 things at once, and one of them is sleep, that is the best option for me!)

So I was mentally prepared for Lukas to protest or at least have a look of confusion when I handed him the bottle this morning. Nothing. He just took the bottle and started drinking. He drank every last drop, handed me the bottle, and said, "All done." And that was the end of breastfeeding. "All done."

Part of me wants him to miss our time together, but it's definitely time. I never had any intention of breastfeeding for this long. My goal was to make it to one year. That's pretty standard. What I found was that at one year, Lukas was still nursing 4-5 times a day. You can't really cut nursing cold turkey and so I had to gradually stop. First, I would mix his bottles with half cow's milk and half breastmilk to acclimate him. We did that for a few weeks until we ran out of frozen milk. Then, I reduced the number of feedings. I was having some painful issues that I will spare you the details, but it meant that I couldn't stop breastfeeding because I needed to remove the milk. Then, Lukas would get sick and they say that you shouldn't try and change things when they are sick. Then, we were going on vacation and we didn't want to do it in a different environment. So, we got home, we are settled and so here we are. Done.

Though I will miss it in some ways, I am also looking forward to the freedom. Being tethered to a nursing pump totally sucks so I was actually happier about being done with the pump than I am about stopping breastfeeding. However, there were a few nights where it would have been nice to not have to race home to feed Lukas. And there were a few close calls at work that threatened travel with an overnight stay. I was just in denial about what I would have done.

Lukas has been talking up a storm. He's been mimicking a lot. He has been saying "outside," "Elmo," and cheese. We have lots of pictures to share, but I still need to add my comments, so I'll hopefully have another posting soon.