The End.

From way back before I was even pregnant with Jeffrey, I knew that I wanted to breastfeed. It was super important to me. My mom is a pretty big advocate and faced a lot of adversity for choosing that method, so I suppose that influenced me. Once the baby was actually on the way, I was on a mission to learn as much as I could. I truly believe that knowledge is power, and I figured that knowing what to do (both in a normal and exceptional cases) would be my best friend. I started attending LLL meetings at six months pregnant, which was such a tremendous and wonderful influence on me. It really allowed me to see other babies nursing!

When Jeffrey was born, nursing came easily to us. We had our share of issues and hard patches, but we overcame them all. I had the common goal of "one year" set in my head. Once we started nearing that, I knew that neither of us were in no shape to be ending so soon. So, I adjusted my thinking. With the AAP's recommendation of at least two years helping me explain my decision, I allowed myself to become an extended breastfeeder. I don't think there's many choices that I rank above that one in my life. I hoped to make it to two, but I knew that pregnancy could affect things. I hadn't made a decision either way on tandem nursing.

As usual, Jeffrey made the decision for me. He started slowly losing interest and dropping nursing session after nursing session. I have no doubts that this baby inside of me was a huge force in this, as I dried up about 10-12 weeks. I made my goal, though. Jeffrey last nursed the evening of his 2nd birthday. It's a beautiful moment that I will treasure forever, and I think it makes it so much more special that it was on such a momentous day. Since then, life has continued on- just no nursing. He's never asked for it, although he did say that it was his milk when we were reading a Big Brother book. We'll work on that :) I'm so happy that I was able to meet his needs as long as he needed them, and I'm happy to place this accomplishment on the list of things I am most proud of. I am very at peace with how it happened, and I'm sure it helps to know that I'll be starting all over again in six precious months. Here's to another happy journey!