The End of Nursing

Nursing My Baby

I've been kind of dreading writing this post, partly because I'm a little sad that we are done nursing.

One of the things I felt very strongly about when I was pregnant was being able to nurse right away. Thankfully, even though I had a c-section, I was able to nurse Emily in the recovery room.

We had some of the normal issues most nursing moms and babies have at the beginning. I was planning on going back to work, so I got a pump. When I didn't go back to work, I still pumped a little so I could get a break sometimes.

I stopped pumping right around the time Emily turned 1, but we did keep nursing. She did start drinking water so she didn't need bottles so much anymore.

I was pretty happy with our nursing relationship and was going to let her nurse until she self weaned. But then I got sick and was in the hospital for 5 days. I didn't nurse her at all when I was in the hospital.

When I got home, all Emily wanted to do want was nurse, but now it was very uncomfortable and sometimes painful for me. Because of this, I had to start the weaning process. I cut her nursing down until once a day at night, but even that was really uncomfortable for me.

Recently we changed our bedtime routine, and cut out that last nursing session. I'm really glad I was able to nurse her for 2 1/2 years, but I'm not terribly happy that getting sick and the fallout from that was the reason I had to wean Emily from breastfeeding.