Updated Post as of 3/2/2017
It has been a little over a year since I stopped nursing my daughter Aurora and I miss it. I was lucky enough to have been able to breast feed all three of my babies. It was a blessing. It allowed me to have intimate moments with each of them. I was not able to give birth to my children the way Mother Nature intended us women to have them. Instead, I ended up having three C-sections in total. You can read my birth stories about Amari, Talan, and Aurora on the blog.
I ended up stumbling across this old post and thought that I would edit it for you and share it again. I am currently working on a breastfeeding post for new mom's and hope to post it in the next couple of weeks with tips and tricks that I learned breastfeed three babies.
The content below was written after I weaned my first son.
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It has been three weeks today that I stopped nursing Amari and I must say I miss it. I miss it a lot. I miss looking into his pretty brown eyes and snuggling him while I nourished him with my milk. Most of all I miss the closeness and the bond that we shared.
We went 15 months strong and it feels like yesterday that we both were learning how to do it. It took a month for us both to master the art of latching on correctly but once he got it, there was no more sore aureola's or engorged boobs. The first month of his life was the hardest. I swear he was eating every two hours and I remember thinking how can I keep doing this?
I was exhausted, in need of sleep, and if he didn't wake up at the same time during the night I would wake-up with a boobie milk stained top and soaking wet sheets cause the girls were too engorged and decided to leak during the night. So much for the pads. They had failed at their job of being leak proof.
The beauty of breast feeding him is that I know deep down in my heart that I gave him the best nutrition that I possibly could and it also saved us a lot of money by not having to buy formula each week. I think we bought four tins in total for the first 12 months of his life as back-ups just in case the milk storage was low in the freezer. I also don't miss hauling around the breast pump to-and-from work every day. That damn bag was heavy.
The weaning process definitely was a challenge but it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Amari was down to one nursing a day (his before bed feeding). I made the conscious decision to wean him two days before our wedding. The reason I decided to wean him was because he would be staying at Mimi and Poppi's house while we were on our honeymoon in Vegas. The second reason was because him not seeing me would be a lot easier with the entire weaning process.
I would say that it went very smoothly with the exception of the day of the wedding when he clung to me for dear life and tried to put his hands down my strapless dress to get to the girls! Other than that, it was a piece of cake. I didn't even have engorged boobies or any leakage problems while in Vegas. Perhaps it was because I had already depleted my milk supply by gradually weaning him down to one feeding a day.
I do miss nursing my sweet little prince but I have to keep reminding myself that he is now a big little boy and is doing what little boys are supposed to be doing; and that is getting into mischief and drinking cow's milk instead of Mommy's milk. I am proud that I lasted fifteen months in the first place. Flashback to that first month and I probably would have just rolled my eyes and laughed.
If you're a new mom and made the conscious decision to breast feed your baby, I want to wish you the best of luck. Don't give up. Have patiences. With time both you and baby will master the art of nursing.
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Thanks for reading. Feel free to leave me a comment. I would love to hear about your breastfeeding journey, weaning process, concerns if your a soon-to-be or new mom. Have a wonderful day.
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