Saying goodbye to nursing

Yes, this one is about boobs. If you're uncomfortable why don't you scroll down and read about Lucia's rainbow birthday party:)

I am slowly but surely weaning Lucia. This is uncharted territory for me even though I also nursed Callie for a little over a year. But in that situation I became pregnant with Lucia (oops!)  and Callie decided she was done with it. I had read that sometimes the pregnancy hormones changes the taste of the milk so sometimes they lose interest. Plus, I knew I would eventually lose my milk anyway. 

 I am definitely struggling with this one. Lucia is a great eater and loves cow's milk so there really is no real need for her to be nursing in terms of nutritional value. Whereas with Callie I really had to work to get her to drink cow's milk. I had to mix breast milk with the cow's milk and slowly but surely she accepted it. Like I've said before, these two girls are awfully different from each other!

I will admit I enjoyed nursing Lucia, but doing all the bedtime shenanigans with two kids by myself when Bill is on business trips is not conducive to having a relaxing nursing session. In addition, I didn't want her to get too used to nursing in order to sleep. Especially since we have finally been blessed with a baby who sleeps! She is also getting to the point where she is super distracted and biting every now and then. A few weeks ago she bit me so hard I was bleeding. So I decided to stop. Especially after I realized that for the past FOUR YEARS I have either been pregnant or nursing! I think it is time to get my body back. Or at least be able to wear a real bra! You know, its the little things in life! I packed up my pump in style and prepared for an easy transition. Cue the dramatic music...

I didn't think it would be too painful since we were only nursing once a day (before bed) but oh boy...was I wrong! The pain was unbelievable! Bill was told point blank that if he even tried to touch me he would die. I was just praying to not get any plugged ducts, because there is really only one cure for that! Nursing! She didn't ask for milk for the first two days, so I thought, Ok! I am uncomfortable but at least she doesn't seem to be missing it. Then night three hit and she was pretty upset and I felt so guilty! Was I stopping for my comfort? Was I depriving her because I am lazy and just don't want to do it anymore? No. I reminded myself of all the reasons we were stopping and the fact that we nursed for 14 months! That's not too shabby especially given how many don't make it 6 months. I comforted her in other ways. I held her and we read some books and had some water and she calmed down. 

An added bonus of stopping nursing, sure you may be in some pain but good lord...how do I put this? You have boobs that women pay damn good money for! I didn't completely realize it until Bill had taken some pictures of me and the girls playing in our friend's pool for a birthday party and OMG. Hello! And no, I will not be sharing those photos here or anywhere else! 

One of my big concerns was working. I was due to sub a class a couple days after stopping and I was afraid I would start leaking in front of a class of APUSHers while I talked about the tensions between the US and USSR during October 1962! I didn't think to buy some breast pads but I found one left from when we first brought Lucia home. So I had to predict which side would leak. Luckily I chose correctly! Phew! 

At this point it has been a week and Lucia isn't asking for milk anymore. I am still a bit uncomfortable but it is getting better. One of the funniest moments was when I went to Safeway to buy supplies for our memorial day bbq which included ice. Of course I forgot the damn ice and remembered after I had unloaded all the groceries into the trunk. Cursing my forgetfulness I went back in and picked up my 2 20 pound bags of ice. I didn't want to put them in a cart so I just carried them. And oh...the relief! A nice young man offered to help me carry them out to my car and I very politely said no thank you. But if he had insisted he would have had another thing comin! That was the best I had felt in days! Running has been a struggle but I have kept up with it for the most part. 

So now I am left with some very nice memories of nursing Lucia. She was such a gentle nurser, unlike her older sister! Callie wanted to do it herself (shocker!) so it was pretty much a wrestling match for several months. But the biggest "problem" with Lucia's nursing is that she would be smiling so big that she couldn't keep suction. Saying goodbye to nursing is of course bittersweet because Lucia is most likely our last child and nursing was so important to me for both girls even though it was such a struggle at first. I am so glad we perservered and stuck with it. I know that I gave them my best and that is something I can be proud of.