We're All Weaned & Purged

So Elijah and I have ended nursing.  It was a mutual decision for us both.  We were both ready to be done.  I admire women who continue to breastfeed on into their child's first and even second year.  If it works for your family, then by all means, keep it up.  I also don't think there's anything wrong with those who choose to end nursing early for whatever reason.  Whatever is in the best interests of your family is what should be done and not everything works best for every family.

In our family, we had reached the point where Elijah was only nursing before he went to sleep and then when he would wake up in the middle of the night.  It got to the point where it felt like I was forcing him to nurse before nap or bedtime when all he really wanted to do was lie down and go to sleep.  So he was ready to be done with that.  And I was more than ready to be done with waking up 2-3 times a night and sitting up for ten minutes at a time with my eyelids barely propped open while Elijah unnecessarily nursed before I put him back down.  It was disrupting all of our sleep, which isn't good for any of us.

So after a few times putting him down for nap and bed without nursing and having success, we also put an end to the night waking/feedings and simply went into give him cuddles and kisses if he woke up.  It was a bit of a struggle for a couple nights but we're all sleeping much more soundly now and I no longer have to be the one to put him to sleep every time he goes down.

Our last feeding was a bit anticlimactic because I didn't realize it was going to be the last one.  It was a night feeding and then the next night he slept through the night without waking up.  By that time I was starting to feel full and decided it was time to just endure the fullness and pain until the milk dried up so the next night when he woke up once we started the "no nursing--go back to sleep" plan.  (We're really good at coming up with clever names for our plans.)

Anyway, it took a little over a week for my milk to dry up and it was not pleasant.  But I think I'm finally back to normal chestal status so today Elijah went with me to buy new bras.  When I had him I got rid of all my regular bras because they were old and not really supportive anymore.  Then we bought be some good nursing bras and sports bras but now that's all I have--or at least that was all I had until this morning when I went and bought new ones.

I got two of the Body by Victoria bras and one of the biofit ones because it's strapless.  I had a coupon for $25 off a $100 purchase and also another coupon for a free pair of underwear that Mike should be pleased with.  It still cost $120 (ACK!!!) but they should last me a long time (I hope anyway).

Body by Victoria (got two of these)

BioFit (one of these for strapless purposes)

This was the free pair of underwear I got with the coupon.  Mike should like them.  Yes, it says "Bride", which I realize I am not, but hey, a free pair of underwear is a free pair of underwear.

In the spirit of embracing this new "Mom-body" I have, courtesy of my sweet Little Man, I also went through my closet and purged a lot of the stuff I can no longer wear.  It's mostly just because I don't like shirts that don't come down and cover my mom pooch belly.  Anyway, here's the pile of clothing I removed from my closet.

I also got rid of some of the shoes that I wore when I worked as an attorney but that I now have no occasion to wear.  It's too bad I have such microscopic feet or I could have given them to someone I know.  They're nice shoes, but no one else can wear my size.  Some tiny woman is going to have a very good day at goodwill sometime soon, that is, if I give it all to goodwill.  Right now it's just making a huge mess in my bedroom and since I hate clutter, it's kind of annoying me.  Part of me wants to just pile it in my car and drive it up to goodwill like right now but I also have a bunch of furniture that I'm planning to call Salvation Army or something like that to come pick up so I should probably just put the clothes out with that.  Maybe it will motivate me to get off my hump and get the stuff out for pick up.  It's just hard to do inventory of the furniture and make phonecalls and set furniture out when you have a one year old to take care of.

So, I know all of this is very interesting to everyone. NOT.  (That's right--just call me "Mom Early-90s Catch Phrase".)  No, seriously.  I know what you really want is to see a picture of Elijah, so here's a picture of him NOT nursing.