The Learning Momma: The end of a breastfeeding relationship

If breastfeeding or pictures of it bother you, move along. You won't want to read this. :-)

H and B are weaned.

Officially.

Done.

All gone.

No more milk. (Okay, it's still technically there, but it's drying up slowly but surely).

They weaned in December. Sometime right before Christmas.

But it's taken me this long to write about it.

It was a lot easier for them to wean than I anticipated. A complete breeze for them.

I was an utter hormonal mess.

H self-weaned. I knew it was coming. It has been a slow self-weaning process for her since last April. That was when she suddenly significantly reduced her nursing to not even 1x a day every day. She'd go days in between without asking. I knew it was coming.

But it always seemed that just when I thought, "Oh, maybe she's done," she'd ask to breastfeed again. But then by October when she was asking, she was literally breastfeeding for less than five seconds at a time. I knew those moments were fleeting. That she was nearly done.

And then it just puckered out. By the time Christmas Day rolled around I'd realized that she hadn't asked since the very beginning of December. She was done.

And so was B at that point.

I made the conscious decision to cut down breastfeeding sessions with B after his second birthday. I needed it. For my sanity. He was nursing 6-8x a day, sometimes for over an hour.

So first I lessened the length of time. Then how many times he could nurse.

It was hard. I felt so mean. He'd cry and I'd hold him and offer him anything under the sun except for the one thing he wanted, and then I'd want to cry with him, because I knew I could stop the tears if I just nursed him, but I just didn't want to. I mean, I did. I wasn't trying to wean him at that point. I just wanted the breastfeeding to happen less.

And once it started, I'd put the ball in motion and he weaned right along with his sister. It was done and over with before I'd realized what had happened.

Truthfully, I was ready to be done. So ready to be done.

But then again, I wasn't. Not even remotely. I totally could have been that mom still breastfeeding her 6 year old. I wouldn't have cared. Because I wanted it to be on his terms. So I feel a bit bad that I kind of forced it along instead of letting him self-wean like his sister. I'm sorry his sister got nearly 4 years of awesome momma milk and he only got 2 years and 4 months. Not like I counted or anything.

So long as he wasn't, you know, nursing 6-8x a day we'd have been good.

But B is kind of an all or nothing kind of guy.

So now it's nothing.

But I'm glad we're done. I'm fantasizing about buying a REAL bra. I bought a few spring/summer dresses (because it will get warm again some day, right!?) without thinking about being able to nurse in them (although my subconscious clearly was, because they're all totally compatible. Alas!).

I'm glad I don't have enough milk to let down when I hear another baby cry (for real, that happened all the freaking time).

I'm glad that I had the ability to nourish and sustain two healthy, strong babies. That I could tandem nurse them. That I could breastfeed H while pregnant with B. That I had an overabundance of milk and their tummies were always full.w

I'm grateful that I was able to connect with my children in this way. That we were able to share so many beautiful moments together.

I'm grateful that weaning wasn't traumatizing for them.

I didn't know what to expect when they weaned. My hormones were a mess. I'd be chopping vegetables and I'd burst into tears. And not because I was sad they had weaned. Just because I suddenly felt compelled to cry.

I cried in the supermarket once when reading a box of cereal.

I'd watch something on TV and something ridiculous like a lion hunting a zebra would bring on the waterworks.

It was a tumultuous few weeks. I'm glad those hormones have figured themselves out.

I believe in breastfeeding. I believe it is the best thing for all babes.

Although I'd encourage anyone to breastfeed to a minimum of 2 years, I'd mostly encourage everyone to do it for a day. A week. A month. As long as you feel you possibly can. Because every drop is awesomeness for your babe.

But this relationship with my children is now over. It was beautiful and fantastic. And some days made me want to pull my hair out. But I'm glad I was able to do it for them.

And on a closing note, here are some booby pictures. ;-) It's certainly been a good run!