Officially Weaned

As of mid-April, Amar'e has completely weaned. To my surprise, this went remarkably smooth. She hadn't been nursing a whole lot so the transition was natural and pretty easy. It involved very little tears or an upset toddler, which was ideal because I wanted the wean to be as easy on her as possible. I truly never had a set idea of how long I was going to nurse her, I just let it happen. I wrote about the thought of weaning and a little bit about my breastfeeding experience here.  I am not sure what caused her to give it up in the end. I am assuming it was a mix between the taste of my milk getting salty because of the hormonal changes my pregnant body is going through, and me suggesting another activity when she would ask for her bubba. She was always willing to give the other activity suggestion a try and forgot all about wanting to nurse. One day I realized that she hadn't nursed in over a week. At this time I do believe I gave into a request of hers to nurse, I guess to just give it a try after a week of not doing it, and it was extremely uncomfortable for me. That must of been my turning point of physically not being able to nurse her anymore. Probably due to the hormonal changes once again, and the thought of tandem nursing is frankly overwhelming to me.  I give those mother who nurse a baby and a toddler credit because I don't think I would be able to handle doing that. How would I get anything done? Other than nursing children? Although, if Amar'e were still nursing when the baby arrived, I'm pretty sure I would be a tandem nursing mother, most likely, not getting anything done (besides feeding children) and that would be OK.

Anyway, I could not be more happy that the wean was done smoothly and without any problems. I also could not be more proud of myself for nursing my lovely little baby for over two years. Nursing doesn't come instinctively for every mother, but it did for me (don't get me wrong, it wasn't overly easy to learn). I am very happy that I never was met with any negativity about our choice of extended-breatfeeding(I guess it's the official name for nursing a child after the age of one). Maybe it isn't viewed as harshly as I thought it was viewed. I'm pretty sure seeing that Time magazine that featured an article on extended nursing set my mind on the course of thinking that is was thought of as negative. Or maybe it is, and I  never found myself in a situation where I noticed negativity about nursing a toddler. Either way, when it comes to what's best for my family, I let my feelings guide me and not the opinions of others. Now I have four more months until I start the next chapter of nursing another child.

This is the outcome of an exclusively breastfeed vegan child:

Results: Perfection!!!!

I want to hear your story...did you breast or bottle feed. Were you happy with your decision? Any regrets?