Since I have posted about mine and Emma's nursing experience along the way I figured I should do a final post now that we are DONE. Over spring break (beginning of April), I dropped nursing/pumping the middle of the day feedings. I knew I had enough milk in the freezer to make up for it for the last month before Emma turned one. I was ready to be done pumping at work. Life changing not taking my pump and pump parts to work the week following the break. Also due to this I decided to go back to feeding her myself in the mornings before work so I wouldn't have to pump at all (unless I was gone in the morning or at night). For the last month I nursed Emma when she woke up and before she went to bed. The week before her birthday I dropped the night feeding (I was going to Athens on Friday the 5th for graduation and really didn't want to have to worry about pumping or else I probably would have dropped the morning first). I still had enough milk in the freezer to give her breastmilk at night until her birthday. The day before her birthday was my last day of pumping. The last morning I nursed was the Sunday (3 days) before her birthday. I went down on minutes pumping on Monday and then I kinda just stopped cold turkey on Tuesday and hoped for the best. I hadn't gotten mastitis or clogged ducts this whole time and so Emma was really leading the charge of weaning on her own. It worked out for me. It's pretty amazing what your body does and figures out regarding milk. I knew I wanted to be done by her birthday. I was ready for my independence to come back and for me to just be mom. Everyone's journey with nursing is different and this was just my take on it. I used up the last bag of my frozen milk the day after her birthday and we have fully transitioned over to whole milk. We made it to one year! I have to say I exceeded my own expectations. When Emma was born I felt a strong/good goal was to make it to six months. At that point we were in a good groove with nursing and she was really good at going between me and a bottle. If it ain't broke don't fix it was my mentality. I probably won't be able to make it to a year next time (I just know how much harder it is when there's a toddler running around) so I just enjoyed this time with Emma while I could.
She had a rough two mornings those first two days I didn't feed her in the morning (sorry Tommy!) but then by her birthday morning she was back to normal with taking a bottle from him in the morning.
Now I'm just mom and not her food. I'm enjoying our new nighttime routine and can't believe we made it to a year of nursing and that Emma is a year old! My how time flies!
Pictures for good measure:
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