Thursday, November 6, 2008

After 13 months...

Brooklyn's milk bar is finally closing. Brooklyn was born about 3 wks early and that made her extremely lazy at everything. From nursing regularly to sleeping ALL DAY. Since she had NO desire to eat and only wanted to sleep she lost a lb in the hospital. Her ped. was worried about her but she knew how badly I wanted to nurse her. Dr. Clawges stick by us and gave me hope that it would all work out.

The first 4 weeks of waking Brooklyn every 2 hours day and night was SO hard. Being a first time mom, recovering from C-section and battling all these new hormones was awful. Wait..Awful isn't right, it was more like torture with a coating of awful just for fun. Just imagine, trying to nurse a sleeping baby, while trying to wake her with cold wash cloths. Sound fun? Hopefully this next baby will come out a little more awake. I can always dream, right?

We were down to one nursing session in the morning since she turned one. Once I found out that I was knocked up again, I wanted to get my boobs back for a little while before this baby is born.

Her last nursing session was on Sunday morning, October 26th. Leading up to this, I knew that Brooklyn didn't ~really~ care. It was me that was going to have a hard time. NOT that I wanted her permanently on my boob but that it really meant that she was growing up and not needing me as much.

Well, just like I thought, Brooklyn did fine! And to my disbelief so did I. I was so nice not to worry about yet something else in the morning. Before then, I felt like I couldn't get my day going until I nursed her. Which was hard on days that she decided to sleep until 9am. Now there is no need to think that way. Whenever I wake, is when I can get ready. It was SO freeing.

Now if you are reading this wondering how ~not~ breastfeeding anymore can be freeing then you have never done it. I can't say that Brooklyn never had formula (she had to in the hospital) but I can say that she has had my very best for 13 beautiful, blissful, stressful, loving months. I wouldn't change anything about my breastfeeding experience.

Here is a picture of Brooklyn in a boob comma when she was just 3 mths old.

Photobucket

Adios!

5 comments:

Heidi Ho said...

Your bringing tears to my eyes... I feel very much like what you described. Dr. Clawges is awesome, isn't she!!! We should throw her a party! I couldn't have stuck with it without her. As a mommy of a 4 month old, I'm already having separation anxiety!! We worked so darn hard to get all this going, I can't imagine stopping it now!!! I love our "sophie/mommy" time!

I love the milk coma pic! You've inspired me to post some!!

Emily said...

Congrats on making it this far!! You did GREAT, mama!

Anonymous said...

Amber,
Well, as you know, I think you have done a great job...with everything, even the hard stuff! Brooklyn is a wonderful, healthy display of your hard work! You'll do great with #2, too!
Love,
Shannon

Trieva said...

I miss those boob coma moments. Yeah, they were nearly 10 years ago! Ouch! That hurt. I'm old, the monsters are old and sometimes I wish I had those milk jugs back instead of SSOS (sagging sacks of skin). But it was all worth it! Your doing a great job lil' Sis! Big hug!

Baby Hancock said...

Congrats on the new one coming! And I can totally relate to your dreading/relief over the weaning. I was thinking it would be rough, but it was soooo nice to just have my body back again (except the baby pounds still on my hips). It WAS freeing!

And I second that motion about the party for Dr. C...she was our breastfeeding lifesaver!

Congrats again!!

Love,
Nina