No Longer a Milk Mama

I've been a Milk Mama since 2/19/07. I started pumping on the day my twins were born. I pumped for the 3 months they were in the NICU and started breast feeding them both the last 2 weeks of their hospital stay. I continued to pump and nurse once they were home. I was somewhat relieved that they had to be supplemented on Enfacare 2 times a day because I just wasn't convinced I had enough milk for both babies. I continued to pump and give them bottles, nurse and give formula (alternating of course) until August. We had to make a trip to Detroit for one of Tate's eye surgeries. The 8 hour trip took us 12 hours. TBD bought an adaptor so I could use my pump in the car. Yes that would be me ~ driving down the highway pumping away. Once we got to the hotel at 2am (we had to be at the hospital at 6a), I pumped for the very last time. I said, "That's it!" and it was.

I then started nursing and giving Enfacare (still twice a day) and that lasted until February. Once the twins turned a year old, I was able to stop the Enfacare. I freaked! So, I started giving them Lipil 2 times a day instead. Tate was the first to lose interest in nursing so I increased his Lipil to 3 times a day in March. They both always nursed first thing in the morning and last thing at night. Reese would nurse several times throughout the day but not for very long.

In May, Tate stopped nursing at night and only nursed in the morning. Reese still nursed at least 3 times a day. In June, Reese only wanted to nurse in the morning and only sometimes at night. They started drinking whole milk the latter part of June and both love it.

I'm so sad to say that Tate stopped nursing completely the last week in June and I can't even remember the day...or the last time for that matter. Now if you know me...I ALWAYS write stuff down. I've had a diary/journal since I was in the 7th grade and I faithfully write in it daily. I've looked through my journal and realized that I didn't even write about it. I guess there's been so much going on lately and have had other things on my mind. At least that's what I've been telling myself because I just can't believe it didn't write it down!

I noticed a few weeks ago that Reese has been less than enthused to nurse in the morning. Now this does make me very sad.. Again, if you know me - you'd never know I was feeling this way. I know so many women enjoy nursing so much (you know who you are!). But for me, I liked it and did love it sometimes, but didn't have that crazy nursing feeling I was expecting to have.
Back to Reese - she started only nursing every few mornings. Then I noticed it was twice a week. Last Saturday about 5am ish, Reese woke up and I was listening to her cry. I thought to myself she'll go back to sleep. Then I remembered that it was her 17 month bday (7/19) and decided to get my girl out of her bed and nurse her for the very last time. She was so happy to see me and she nursed for over 45 minutes while sleeping. I knew that it would be the last time I'd ever nurse a baby.

I'm happy that I remember every little detail about it (and yes, I wrote about it in my journal), but I'm also a lot sadder than I expected. We went to Happy Mommy's house that day for Bo and Daisy's party. I told HM about my morning and could hardly get it out - I started crying and got very upset. I totally didn't expect the emotions I was having . My husband will read this and go "What? I didn't know this." It's not something that I wanted to share until now.

That's all for now. I have to figure out what I'm going to post for tomorrow's SFMTY. Where's the Kleenex?