The End of a Journey

2 years was my goal, and we made it to 20 months. 20 months of nursing my two twinkies is pretty good. I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I'm pretty proud of that accomplishment.

I shared all about our breast feeding journey in this post. For the 7 months of nursing that followed that post, there were many times I thought Harrison was starting to wean. He never did, and at 19 months I started weaning them.

They were still nursing 3 times a day. When they woke up, before naps and before bed. We decided to gradually wean by dropping one nursing every week or two. We started with their bed time nursing. We had changed their bedtime routine a few weeks earlier so that they nursed before baths instead of after. This made it super easy to just switch out nursing for a sippy cup with cow's milk.

They were all about the sippy cups and totally didn't miss nursing. The nap time nursing went next, and finally their morning nursing session. They weren't phased at all. They happily drink their milk while we sing songs and say our nightly prayers. They love drinking their morning smoothie while watching Mickey. Weaning hasn't affected them at all.

I miss the sweet quiet time we used to have in the morning while we wake up for the day. I don't however miss being tied down to nursing. I can take Excedrin again. I can have a glass of wine with dinner if I want. If I need to go to work, I don't have to work around their nursing schedule. Nursing them was absolutely amazing, but I'm glad we're done.

When we decided to put off our FET cycle, I considered postponing weaning a month, but I'm glad I didn't. I'm glad to have a month where my hormones are back to normal before we start altering them again. Plus, I had no idea how painful the first couple weeks would be. I assumed since we were down to only one session, engorgement wouldn't be an issue, but I was dead wrong. Thank goodness for Benadryl and sports bras.

I am so thankful that I was able to continue nursing them as long as I was. I wish I would have better documented their nursing through pictures. I have quite a few pictures of them tandem nursing as infants, but not of them as they got older, and very few of them individually nursing. My memories of nursing them will always be some of my favorite memories. I am so blessed to have shared those sweet moments with them.