Twelve Months and Two Days

I have a little one crawling around and soon she’ll be walking. I can’t help, but reflect on the past twelve months. She is changing from a little baby and growing to be a little person.

I’m pleased that Chey made it a full year on breastmilk. YAY! We had a rocky start, but I was committed to it and I’m sure Trey is very pleased that I stuck with it too. Especially, since he didn’t have to clean bottles and he didn’t really lose much sleep, since I had to do all the feedings. It’s funny to hear him chat with first time fathers. He always encourages them to encourage their wife to go with nursing and then he’ll list all the benefits. It’s really funny. He’s thanked me multiple times for sticking with breastfeeding and it makes me feel appreciated. So, husbands out there let your wife know you appreciate what they are doing for your baby because there were days I wanted to throw in the towel.

As much as I thought nursing a baby (at least in the beginning)... was painful, inconvenient, time-consuming, a chore, and even complicated ---all that freezing and thawing and heating and special equipment and pumps and tubes, etc----all that changed as time went by. I also learned a new language in the process. Let down reflex, colostrum, engorgement, mastitis, and thrush just to name a few.

I told myself, try to make it until Cheyenne is three months, now try to make it to six months, and now we are at twelve months and I'm ready to wean her. I've been working on it for two weeks, but we are about to go into the holidays and she will be with me more often. I just need to stand my ground and continue to offer her whole milk during the daytime and gradually wean her. I'll do mornings and nights and before you know it, she won't even notice, at least that's what I'm hoping. I read Baby Steps, it's a blog that Lisa Jhung writes. She is a contributor to Runners World. She wrote an entry titled When to Wean. She talks about weaning her 10 month baby and I can completely relate to that entry as a working-running-nursing-mother. Here is the link if you'd like to read the entry.

Today, I'm thankful that I was able to breastfeed Chey for the first year of her life. Yay for milk! Soon, I will no longer be a walking milk factory.