End of an era

There has been a big change in my mommy world... I have stopped breast feeding. I stopped just before Christmas. It is hard to say exactly how I feel about it. It was a sad feeling letting of go of that special closeness and dependency that Samuel and I had shared from his first day. Yet it also felt like the right time.

We had been gradually decreasing how often he breastfed over the last several months. Soon after he turned one we went down to twice a day- when he first woke up and then right before bed. Then a month or two after that I stopped breastfeeding him in the evening and he instead drank cow's milk but we carried on first thing in the morning. It was such a special way to start the day! He had always been unsettled first thing until he breastfed so I had wondered how we would ever stop at the time.

But like most changes with Samuel various factors or situations seem to crop up that make the change less difficult. For instance, mid December there were a couple of mornings where I needed more sleep so Adrian fed Sammy a cup of milk in the morning and then there was a morning where he didn't have milk straight away... and he was fine! Basically it was much easier than I could have anticipated and hasn't been hard at all. I think this is mainly because we have taken our time with it all.

So that's our story of stopping breastfeeding in a nutshell!

Afterthought - this is a very simplified version of my thoughts on this subject. I have found breastfeeding at times amazing, convenient, exhausting, frustrating, restricting, but mostly I have found that it has gotten easier over time and has been very special for Samuel and I. As I don't know who will be reading this post I have edited many of my thoughts and feelings on the subject, but please feel free to e-mail or message me with any questions/thoughts.