Last night was officially Coop's last taste of his Mother's Milk. Yes, I’m emotional but also ready. Let’s just hope Coop is ready too. My goal for breastfeeding was non-committal. From the very beginning, I thought I’d see how things went. Well, Coop took to breastfeeding like a champ. After we made the 1year mark, I figured I’d wait for signs that he might be ready to quit. That never seemed to happen. He started asking for ‘mook’ and even started lifting my shirt. That’s when I realized that he might never be ready to quit and I wasn’t prepared to stop by his kindergarten class daily for “milk and cookies” so that we could keep with our feeding schedule.
I did quite a bit of research on different weaning methods and decided to try the gradual method. Honestly, I don’t think there really is a “proper” method or "right way" (as I’m beginning to learn is the case with everything when it comes to parenting). Slowly, I started omitting a feeding a couple of weeks at a time until we were down to 2 a day.
After we finished last night, I kissed Coop on the cheek , thanked him for the wonderful ride and told him he could now no longer think about breasts (mine or anyone else’s) for at least 20 more years. That’s realistic don’t you think? Mark has a long weekend so we decided this was the perfect time to get things rolling. For the next couple of days, he is now in charge of putting Coop to bed and rescuing him from his crib when he cries. We figured it would be best if I was completely out of sight, out of mind. (Thanks Kristin and AJ for the tip).
Did I ever think I’d be talking about this on the wonderful World Wide Web????? That would be a big fat NO. But this is a big deal and this is now my life. Once again, here I am blogging about it. Do I think Coop is going to want to hear about this down the road or perhaps ever? Probably, not…but for me, it was a precious ride, a beautiful gift and bonding experience that I never imagined would be so amazing. Just another example of why I love being Coop’s Mom.
Here I am wanting to take a picture right before I feed our little baby for the last time:
Notice I seem to have time to pose for a shot and Coop just wants to get the show on the road.
Wish us luck for the rest of the weekend.
4 comments:
Awwww Sweetie!! You have made me cry, for a good reason. I really miss breastfeeding and am so sad that I'm done. But at the same time it is nice to begin to reclaim my boobs as my own. I love what you wrote and couldn't have captured the mixed feelings of weaning any better than you have. Good luck this weekend. Keep that baby busy so he's too tired to think about what is different.
Of course you have to blog about this - it's a BIG DEAL. Breastfeeding a baby is a BIG DEAL. Moving on from that phase of your child's life is a BIG DEAL. Good luck.
It is a sad day when the boobers go away. I think I wasn't as emotional about it because I was already pregnant and so knew it would be starting up soon enough again.
There are still so many times when I almost go to give her some milk, and it's been 5 months now, then I catch myself. Like when I am holding her in that special nursing position or when she is being an especially fussy butt.
I hope the weaning goes well for both baby and mom. And keep talking about anything you want!
I do the same thing Joanne does. So many times, out of habit, when he is having a hard time I start to give him a boob and then I catch myself.
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