725 Days of Bonding

Day One

Nearly two years ago my little girl, my last baby, entered this world.   This past Saturday she and I closed a chapter together.  Mae Mae is officially weaned from Mama Milk after 725 days of enjoying it.   We have been weaning slowly for the last two months and she was ready.  In fact I had set the final date as her birthday, but Saturday just seemed to be the right time.   I set up the camera and set the timer delayed by quite a bit and sat down with her one last time.    We captured our last moment of mama milk and I know that we will both treasure it in years to come.  

 

 

Mae and I did pretty well with her feedings.   She had a different path in someways than her brother did.   We had our own struggles and moments.   For example - the first time Ace bit me was when he had no teeth, so we taught him to not bite early when it wasn't *quite* as painful.   However, the first time when Mae bit me, she was in the hospital and had no teeth but the poor little one with tubes in her nose I wasn't going to screech and startle her - so it wasn't until she got her first teeth that I startled her for real and real trauma occurred.  It wasn't bad, but it was worse than with no teeth that's for sure!

Mae had her silly quirks like she loved to put her foot on my chin when she nursed.   She used to drink so much she'd have what we coined a 'mass evac' - everywhere.   She'd get so mad if I cut her off.   She also refused a bottle - the stuff on tap was so much better.  Most of the time I didn't mind.      Thankfully she drank off of both and so there was no uneveness for a year+ like I had due to her brother's instance of one only.  I weaned her pretty late from night time feedings - with her being sick off and on and being tiny I wanted to her to have calories anytime she'd take them - and some night she'd use it as a pacifier all night long.  Sometimes mommy was frustrated, but we pushed through it.  

I loved when she'd rub my chest and be sweet - but more often than not she was never still once she learned to roll, stand, etc..  she was ridiculous - she'd nurse practically upside down with her legs standing straight up, she'd nurse upside down!  She was a tornado and rarely still.  It most days just made me laugh at her under ridiculous acrobatics during what for most kids is a very calm and relaxing time.  :) 

Day one she latched on and she enjoyed it very much for 725 days.  It nourished her, helped her tiny self grow, and it comforted her when she was sad, scared, or just wanting to be close to her mommy. During our weaning process we slowly replaced mama milk with rocking in the rocking chair - that helped our bedtime nursing elimination the most in early December and now she knows to ask for rocking in place of milk.  She also all on her own replaced mama milk comfort with rubbing my tummy.   She just wants to have my bare tummy to rub her hands on - it's sweet and I happily oblige... even Saturday night climbing into the pack-n-play with her so she could rub my tummy as she seemed to have a bit of anxiety knowing that there was no more mama milk ever.   I think she wasn't sure if I went away too and so there we laid well past bedtime with her rubbing my tummy and the two of us in a PnP.   It was the closing of one chapter but I can't wait to see what the new ones hold for the two of us.