The Nursing Surprise

Well, this was a surprise to me anyway...

I will start at the beginning, which is always a good place to start.  I nursed Mason for 13 months.  He never had a drop of formula.  I was actually pretty anal about it, not wanting him to have any.  I knew that it was healthier for him and that is just the way I felt.

With Dakota, my mindset has changed.  Maybe because it's my second and you get a bit more lax as you progress as a mother.  Now, I still believe that breast milk is better for my baby, but she has had formula at least once a week (usually on Sundays when I was busy at church), since she was like 3 months old.  I also pumped quite a bit, so she was very used to bottles during the week as well.

On November 26th, the day after Thanksgiving, I noticed Dakota having a preference for the bottle.  This was the day that she started turning her head away when I would try to nurse her.  Now, you have to understand, Mason never did this.  Ever.  He was always happy as a clam to be nursing at any time of day really.  I started cutting back when he turned one and then gradually weaned him by 13 months.  He never stopped wanting to be nursed.  He was also not really ever given a bottle though.

So the first time she did it, I thought she just wasn't hungry.  But I realized as it kept happening that my daughter didn't want to nurse anymore.  This is probably completely normal for mothers who had babies that self-weaned.  But I hadn't experienced it before.  So I continued to nurse her in the morning when she woke up and in the evening as I put her to bed.  I would do it at nap time until she turned away, or bit me then as well.  On Monday night, she refused to nurse at bed time.  And has refused it ever since.

It's hard to explain my feelings on this.  I have been looking forward to the end of nursing, because like with Mason, the last 7 pounds didn't fall off until I stopped nursing.  Plus then I wouldn't have to worry about eating so much so that my milk would let down.  But I was expecting to wean her myself. I expected to be in control of the situation (I'll be honest, mainly since getting married, I've realized that I am somewhat of a control freak).

So it's done.  No more nursing.  I'm definitely okay with it, because I can start training for triathlons again, etc.  But I'm also sort of sad about it.  That was pretty special one on one time I had with Dakota.  And sometimes with a crazy Mason running around, I forget to take that time for it to be just me and her.

When Daddy holds one, the other always wants him too!

This was Mason's creation: sausage inside of a pancake!

Watermelon.  I don't like it, but my children LOVE it!

 Mason and Dakota love crawling under the table and playing.  We call it "hiding in the weeds"...

Dakota likes crawling in the pantry, unstacking our cans, and taking stuff out of our recycling trash can.  Silly girl!