Been awhile ...

Long time, no blog!

Hope all of you survived the holidays. Well, in fact, I hope you did more than survive - ate, drank, laughed, enjoyed, relaxed - but I will settle for survived. Two-fourths of our household (the adult half, thanksverymuch) was stricken by a GI bug and we limped through the end of December and into the New Year. I will say, however, that an unplanned (and not wholly enjoyable) lack of eating for 5 days sure kicks off the 2014 weight loss plan. And, I didn't have a drop of alcohol on New Year's Eve and finally woke up hungry and clear-headed. If that isn't the best way to start fresh, then I don't know what is.

This will be a notation of my random thought patterns, as most things are these days.

A few Christmas notes: we have joined the land of American Girl Doll. It's an OK place to be, but I'm still reserving final judgement. Interestingly, while Ellen was THRILLED to get Saige from Santa, she doesn't play with her much. I don't think she knows HOW, which sounds weird, but I think is true. Dolls really aren't my thing, so I don't quite get it either. Also, Santa just brought Saige and nothing else, so again, she didn't know what to do with her. Thankfully our wiser family members gifted Ellen a doll bed and some gift certificates for accessorizing, but I think some doll playdates are in our future. Santa also brought a DVD set of 'Where On Earth Is Carmen San Diego?' that has been a big hit, along with a really cool Atlas from Grammy. Ellen's stocking had a wireless mouse and mouse pad so she could start learning how to use a mouse on my laptop as we don't have a standard desk top computer at our house. I'm glad someone mentioned it because it is a skill she will need in school and she is having great fun with it. Santa brought Georgia a new table, a little bigger than our old one, with 4 chairs for dining with friends. He was even more clever and got one that was a gray-brown color that wouldn't show every pencil and crayon mark. They were both gifted many more great things - maybe I will get my act together and post about some of them.

On occasion I will wake up during the night and not be able to fall back asleep and then my mom-xiety sneaks in. I don't really have generalized anxiety, but I think all moms (parents) have those things they worry about at the most random times. Recently, it was fire safety and escaping our home. The next morning I marched Ellen around the house and made sure she knew how to open all of the doors and the garage door and how to use the cordless phone to dial 911. I feel (mildly) better.

A few things I've saved to share:
Two posts from Girl's Gone Child on teaching your kids about strangers, something I still struggle to do well. The Mother Co and Staying Safe Without Fear and Talking To Strangers.

A(nother) article on car seat safety from the New York Times: Strapped In But Still At Risk. Georgia finally moved up from her bucket to a convertible, rear-facing, seat and Ellen is still in a 5-point harness, but is probably at the weight limit for kid + seat under the new LATCH guidelines, so I think we need to re-install her seat with the belt. Ugh.

And just something interesting about Music Education: Is Music the Key to Success?

I am finally weaning Georgia now at 14 months. We are leaving town at the end of the month and it just needs to happen. She has only been nursing in the morning and before bed for months now and I haven't pumped in many months, so it is just so easy. She enjoys it - smiles and claps her hands before she nurses! - and I honestly could just keep going. It's sad as she is my last, but all good things come to an end. She didn't really bat an eye when I dropped the before-bed feeding - we just replaced it with extra books and cuddles and teethbrushing. We'll see how the morning goes ... I'm sure it will bother me more than her.

And, on a related note, I feel very fortunate that weight loss has not been an issue after having Georgia. I actually weigh less now than at any point since I had Ellen. I attribute this some to nursing, mostly to my near-constant activity level on my 4 days at home, and the fact that we never eat out and I take my lunch to work to save money. Also, I never ate tons of fast food, but I almost never do now because there isn't time or I have the kids with me. I do need to replace the calorie burn from nursing, though, and am trying to wrap my brain around some form of exercise. I am not athletic and have never formally exercised. I know I need to do it for my health, as well as to firm up some post-baby areas. I'm thinking one of these 7-minute Apps is a good place to start and Ellen might even join me!

Interesting perspective

I've started reading A Cup of Jo pretty regularly and like her take on motherhood and general things-I-wish-I-knew-about.

Her post on Motherhood Monday was about her experience with clinical depression, thought to be related to weaning her son. I found it really interesting and could totally see how such a change in your life could result in some imbalance in one way or another.

I've written (ad nauseum) about my weaning process. I don't recall that I had any lingering sadness, but my memory is pretty awful. I weaned Ellen over several weeks, so I think that gave me some time to adjust.

I just thought this was something worth sharing if you will be weaning a wee babe in the near future, or maybe a friend is ....

Bye bye B

Goodbye B.
You were such a friendly pacifier. We all loved you dearly and you served us well. Alas, your time has come. We no longer need you. Farewell, friend ...

We took the cold turkey approach at the suggestion of many friends. It worked well with the bottles, but the addiction to the pacifier seemed to be so much MORE. I suppose we are like most parents who think, "sure, lots of kids are addicted to the pacifier. But our kid? She must be the MOST addicted of all time."

We had discussed which weekend might be best (i.e. anticipating some napless/sleepless days - better have reinforcements) and the Huz just decided we should do it sooner rather than later. I mostly agreed, minus the immunizations on the same day of paci-dropping. Oh well. Timing isn't everything.

It started out reasonably promising. Girly got her paci ("B") in the morning and for her shots. She had it for her nap, which just happened to be POOR. She threw the sole remaining pacifier out of her crib on the floor when she woke up crying (as per usual), so I casually kicked it under her crib into nonexistence. Before her nap, I told her: "When you wake up, we are going to throw your B's away. You are a big girl and you don't need your paci anymore". I'm certain that she didn't know what I was talking about, but I felt better giving her some kind of warning.

It was a beautiful day, so we took full advantage and went to the park after her nap. (Key #1: do something a little out of your routine to keep minds off pacis). She asked about it only once or twice all afternoon and was easily distracted. I just said, "Sorry, no more pacis. Your B's are all gone. You are a big girl and you don't need them anymore."

I had also removed all visual cues to the pacifiers (key #2). We used to keep them on the bottle drying rack in our kitchen window. The rack and pacifiers were all put away during her nap. At bedtime, we used to keep spare pacifiers in her bookcase. Now, that area is replaced with a basket of loveys and stuffed animals.

Bedtime was a little different. She got whiny and asked for her B. I just calmly told her there were no more B's. I offered her a stuffed animal instead to take to bed, which she begrudgingly took. She cried for about 15 minutes while she figured out how to fall asleep.

I told Huz that it was kind of sad. I'm clearly not opposed to crying it out - but, I felt like this was something we had forced on her (I should use 'force' lightly - she was a big fan of the paci from the start) and then took away.

The first night was great - not a peep during the night, which was a pleasant surprise since I feared she might wake up and not know how to get back to sleep. The next day's nap also took about 15 minutes of crying, and was extra sad because now, instead of just crying, she can yell out "mama, mammaa, MAMA!!!!" Ugh. Saturday bedtime was about 10 minutes of crying, then Sunday nap was just a few minutes and Sunday bedtime was just a whimper and then to sleep. Or, that may have had something to do with her fever. Again, timing isn't everything.

She continued to ask for B here and there, but we just told her "the B's are all gone" and moved on with our business. I am proud of her and proud of us. I saved all the pacifiers up in the cabinet and I was prepared to give it back to her (restricted to bedtime) if we ran in to a disaster. I'm glad I had the contingency plan and I'm extra glad we aren't going to use it.

I'll tuck away a couple of the B's for memory's sake, but I'm glad they are just that ... a memory.

Turkey isn't just for the holidays

We went cold turkey this weekend on the bottle weaning.

I've hinted at our challenge getting Girly to drink milk from a sippy cup. From a bottle? No problem! The white stuff in the cup, though, throws a wrench into the works.

Our pediatrician suggested that 16-24oz of milk/dairy per day was the goal. When she was taking all bottles, it was 4 bottles per day, about 5oz. each.

After we made the full switch from formula to cow's milk, I started to drop bottle feedings and replace them with sippy cup feedings. About a month ago I gave a sippy cup for her 3rd feeding of the day (afternoon). She wanted nothing to do with it. About a week later, she took 2-3oz. of milk at that time of day with her snack. I replaced the late morning bottle about 2 weeks after our first dropped feeding, so she was left with only a bottle first thing in the morning and before bed. She still generally refused milk during the day, and really only drank very little water (which was always her pattern). So, after a month, we had only worked up to about 4oz. of milk total during the day from a sippy cup. PLUS, I noticed she was really sucking down the first and last bottles, so we gave her a little more at that time. She was just shifting the fluids around during the day.

We clearly weren't making progress toward getting rid of those bottles. I had several friends tell me, and I read several places, that cold turkey was the most efficient way of doing things.

(*As an aside, I already kind of mentioned that we have tried several different types of sippy cups in an attempt to woo her. Nothing with a valve works, and for the longest time I couldn't get her to drink from a straw, even with all kinds of enticement. Finally, she was playing with the straw from my Sonic diet cherry limeade and took a sip. She spit it right out, but that was enough for her to learn! Not ever what I would have planned, but such is life.)

Our first day was so-so .... she drank a total of 5oz of milk throughout the day. I offered it in both the straw cup and the Tilty cup, and she still appears to prefer the Tilty cup (the first cup we ever introduced). I offered her milk at all her 'normal' feeding times, as well as other times during the day. I also offered water. I bet she drank no more than 9oz. of fluid all day long. I did give her a few ounces of juice/water at dinner, to 1) try to get some fluids in, and 2) try to avert the anticipated constipation from lack of fluids. She sucked it right down from the sippy cup. Surprise, surprise.

I made sure to offer her bigger meals and snacks than usual, which she ate most of, along with dairy at most meals (especially 4oz of yogurt for breakfast). I usually try to limit her fruit (to make sure she gets the veggies in), but gave fruit at all meals, again to help with some anticipated constipation.

By the second day, she had a new tooth and a terrible cold. So, about the worst timing ever for our project, but again, such is life. Plus, if she was going to be crabby, I guess we got it all over with at the same time! She took 6 oz. of milk total on the second day, and a little bit of other liquids. She never seemed to whine for the bottle and didn't act like she missed it, but just refused the milk.

By the 3rd day, she drank 12-13oz. of milk throughout the day. So, in addition to yogurt for breakfast, we were back to the minimum on milk/dairy for the day.

A pretty painless transition, all in all, and I'm SO happy to be done chasing all those little bottle parts all over the dishwasher!

A cow says Moo

The transition to milk is complete.

It really was not a big deal at all, minus the delivery system. We have not yet accomplished the bottle to sippy cup transition, but are making some (tiny) progress.

I polled my mom friends and it seemed most people did some version of mixing formula and milk to get babe used to the taste. We did the same thing ... within a week we went from all formula to all milk. I actually had enough breast milk in my freezer to make it just past one year, mixing her bottles half-breast milk and half-formula. I was shocked that it lasted so long and thought we would have run out months ago, but I was happy that we were able to use every last drop.

I had been advised to only give milk in a sippy cup, because if you give it in bottles it will be that much harder to transition to the cup. This may be true, and may be contributing to our s-l-o-w progress on that front, but I just wasn't ready to tackle both at the same time. I need fewer variables in my life.

She was still getting bottles 4 times a day, so we did 3/4 formula and 1/4 milk for a few days, then half and half, then 3/4 milk and 1/4 formula, then all milk. There was little to no protest from her and within a week she would have taken all milk. I actually kept adding a little formula to every bottle to just finish out the can, and now we are completely done.

I have made a half-hearted attempt to warm her bottles less and less over time. We always warmed her formula in a mug with hot water. She would take it at most temperatures, but better if it wasn't straight out of the fridge (I prepped all her bottles the night before). We are still warming the milk briefly, and will continue to work on cutting this out.

(When she will drink milk out of the sippy cup, she prefers it straight from the fridge, so that is promising).

Also, Santa brought a toothbrush and toothpaste for Christmas. We hadn't really been brushing because she had only 2 bottom teeth, but she is sprouting lots more and it is time to start that habit. I'm not really sure about the rules on toothpaste - I think you are supposed to wait until after age 2 for the fluoridated stuff? Starting around a year, though, the mouth doesn't "self-clean" as well (according to our pediatrician), and the milk sugars can be bad for those teensie weensie toofers.

Worth noting

Just a few things that I thought were worth mentioning, in case I haven't yet ...

1. Our Girl loves her pacifier. It will be a sad day for all involved when it comes time to get rid of it, which is really any day now. I may have mentioned way back that I had read about a perfect window of time where it is (relatively) easy to get rid of the pacifier, sometime around 6-9 months. I will say, in retrospect, that this was definitely true. She had a very "take it or leave it" attitude about the whole thing. We persisted, and now she is addicted. Oh well.

Another tip from a very wise Mom friend ... at bedtime, Girly gets one pacifier. We tried really hard not to play the "replace the pacifier" game, but until your baby has the searching skills to find a pacifier in bed and put it back in their mouth, you have somewhat of a dilemma. Once she could do it herself, we would load up the crib with tons of pacifiers, and she would proceed to throw every.single.one on the floor. Then scream. So, now she gets just one at bedtime. Later in the night, I go in her room to check on her and put several more in her bed. That is it until morning, when she throws every.single.one on the floor, as if to say "come and get me!".

2. We moved up to Overnight diapers a month ago or so. We never really had a problem with soaking through, but when it happened 2 nights in a row, I knew we needed a change. Cold, wet PJs and sheets don't make anyone happy. We are using the Huggies Overnights on a recommendation from a friend, but I know there are other types. She is usually in size 3 diapers, but these are size 4 because that is all they had at Target. I don't know if they make them smaller or not. It has worked like a charm! I have also known babies who wet through the Overnight diapers. If this is the case, I guess the next bigger size diaper might work, or I think you can also buy diaper liners that go inside the diaper for some more absorbency power.

3. Sippy cups. We are struggling with the milk-in-a-sippy-cup transition. I'll report back on my trials and tribulations, but in retrospect I might have done things a little differently. There are so many kinds of sippy cups and I think a lot of kids will have a preference for one or another. I started her on the Tilty cup at 6 months, and now she does very well with it. I picked this cup because it doesn't have a valve, so fewer parts to keep track of and more like drinking from a normal cup. We also use the Take and Toss cups because that is what she uses at school, and they are very similar. (Note: if your daycare uses one particular kind of sippy cup for all the kids, ask about that earlier rather than later. I had no idea until recently. It wasn't a big deal, but might have been nice to know). My point: Girly does great with these cups if the liquid inside is clear or purple. Not white. I know this really isn't because of the cup design, but I wish I would have worked harder with her on a straw, at a minimum, so we would have more options to try at this point. She won't drink from a sippy cup with a valve or one with a soft spout. In the long run, I think this will help her drink from a real cup, but in the short run it is driving me crazy.

The end.

Success!

We had a great trip to Hawaii.

Really, though, how could we not?

Sun, sand, no diapers and SOUND sleeping. Sign me up!

We missed our Girl terribly. Thank goodness for blogs - I would watch videos of her new tricks. It was really very strange to be without her. Then we got home and I remembered ... oh yeah ... I'm responsible for all of this!

I packed up almost everything we own to take to one grandmother's house and then the other - they were so, so nice to split the childcare duties. I tried to plan for every contingency. (Ha). I typed up A LOT of notes and my mom and mother-in-law were even nice enough to humor me and save any eye-rolling until I left!

I packed up tons of frozen baby food and then Girly promptly decided that she wouldn't eat anything off a spoon or fork. So much for that.

I highly recommend getting away for a trip with your significant other. You'll find yourself in a rut where you only talk about baby stuff and daily life stuff ... it's nice to just remember what it was like to be un-scheduled, do whatever you want and enjoy being together! As I heard once before, having children does not make your life better. It does make your life richer in so many ways, but not easier, or cheaper or less stressful. Take a little break and go back to those days!

Here is what I don't recommend: buying a swimsuit when you are still breastfeeding, planning to wean, and then have totally weaned when that swimsuit needs to be used. I stared forever at the J.Crew sale swimsuits trying to figure out which bikini would work. And then I realized ... bikini? What the hell for? I don't care AT ALL if my stomach is tan. So ... I own the first one piece I've had since summer camp. J.Crew has some really cute ones and they hide a NUMBER of sins.

We also finally got our will, trust, advanced directives, and medical power of attorney for our parents taken care of the day before we left town. It's quite a feeling getting on a plane for 8 hours thinking ....1) thank goodness everything is taken care of in case we die in a crash, and 2) did we jinx this in some way?

This is it - I swear

Are you tired of the breastfeeding and weaning talk? ME TOO.

Just to wrap it all up, I thought I would note those things that I really couldn't have lived without for the last 10 months.

- Medela Freestyle pump, as I've gushed over before
- Extra pump parts and breast shields - makes life so much easier
- Lansinoh milk storage bags. As I've mentioned before, these are less expensive than the Medela bags. Also, now that I am using up my frozen milk, these are for sure the easiest to thaw and transfer to bottles.
- Lilypadz! A little pricey, but SO worth it in my opinion. I've been through 5 sets! I found out pretty quickly that it was annoying to wash and dry one set every day. Two sets work much better - wash and dry one set while you are wearing the other. I just kept a bottle of dish soap by my bathroom sink and scrubbed them up before I showered.
- Gilligan & O'Malley nursing tanks from Target. I liked these the best and they are much less expensive than a lot of others. I have about 8 and I wore them almost every day for months and months and months.

Also ... a few things I've learned or would do differently.
- Weaning was sad in some ways, but the freedom is great. I scheduled a full day of fun shortly after I weaned the Girl and it was the first time I could be away from her all day without pumping. Heaven! Do something special for yourself - you deserve it, whether you breastfed for days, weeks or months.

- Our Girl will eat virtually anything and didn't bat an eye at formula, despite the fact that she hadn't had any from the time we got home from the hospital until about 10 months. I worried about it and wished I would have introduced it earlier. She didn't care, but another babe might.

- Next time, I won't be so crazy about the pumping schedule. I CLEARLY had a good enough milk supply to make it through. It is nice to use up the frozen milk to cut down the formula bill, but was it really worth all that time pumping? Not sure ... and, now I feel obligated to use up all that frozen milk, so it really isn't as simple as scooping powder into a bottle. I'm digging through frozen bricks of breast milk, thawing it the night before, mixing it with formula, on and on. The things we do for our kids ...

- My extended weaning schedule worked really well. I had little to no discomfort with dropping feedings. I thought the first feeding would be easiest to drop and the last ones harder, when it was actually the reverse. I had a lot of fullness and leaking the day or two after I dropped the late afternoon feeding, then never again. My milk supply dropped very quickly and I even moved up our schedule without any issues.

- And, my public service announcement. In my line of work I meet a lot of women who have a family history of breast cancer. If they are of childbearing age, I always tell them to be mindful of any breast lumps or changes while breastfeeding - don't chalk it up to breastfeeding when it might be something else. If a lump or change persists for several weeks, be sure to see your doctor - better safe than sorry. I have noticed several hard lumps since I've weaned the Girl - very likely blocked ducts. I worried a bit and asked my lactation consultant, and have been working them out in the shower under hot water, which is helping. The point is - pay attention to the girls, not just the Girl.

Most importantly - ask questions of anyone you can find! Lactation consultants for the technical stuff, but friends, too. I always marvel that my friends are basically raising my kid, in the sense that I would know NOTHING without them. Use the people who have gone before you - they are the BEST resource!

Farewell

And .... we're done.

This morning was officially (I think) the last time I'll nurse my first baby. I hope there will be others (another) but you never quite know. The experience has been very meaningful, very educational, very frustrating, and very special.

I had planned on yesterday being the last time, but decided on just one more day. Honestly, I think I could continue with "just one more day" for a long time, but all things come to an end. A stuffy nose on her part and a Hawaiian vacation on my part lead me to believe it is the right time. A weekend morning so I could savor our restful time, in bed, in the wee hours of the morning - not the rushed impatience of a work day.

Our Girl is growing up, in some sad ways and in mostly wonderful ways. I delight in her independence and her personality and her assertion of both. There are many things her family provides for her, but there is one thing that only I could provide for her and I'm grateful for the opportunity.


Like a hand and a glove, a sweet baby foot and the crook of a mother's arm often fit so well together ...

Perfect Storm

Weaning + Development + ?Growth Spurt + Poor Naps = WHOA.

I'm finding 9 months to be a challenge. I think it is really the first glimpse into the rest of our lives - "constant vigilance" appears to be the theme. Those babies are full of trickery - just when you get past the sleep deprived stumbling and reach a place of relative calm, everything changes.

Don't get me wrong, I'm obviously thrilled that she is exploring and moving as expected, but it does take some getting used to. We finally rearranged all the furniture to make things more Girly-friendly. I'm happier not to have a running dialogue of "No. No. Don't touch that. On your bottom please. No Ma'am. You'll hit your head. That's not for you. Please don't touch that. No."

The weaning is going well. Really, better than expected. I'm also feeling fewer pangs of sadness that breastfeeding is coming to an end, and more excitement that the baby acrobatics, nose-grabbing and hitting me in the face while nursing is coming to an end. She is showing me that she is ready. I am, too.

I set up this prolonged weaning schedule, which has been fine, but may need to be expedited. On the days that I've dropped a feeding, I've usually had to pump once just a little bit for relief, and then the next day has been OK without pumping, and by the third day everything seems normal. One factor that I hadn't considered is that my milk supply also seems to be lower for the remaining feedings. So, this coupled with the baby distraction and acrobatics, makes me really question whether Girly is eating enough.

Exhibit A: Our Gal is waking up early. Early. I think it really started before I was full-on weaning, but she is routinely up in the 4's or 5's, which is just not tolerable. It's not everyday, but more days than not. And, she is screaming and mad, not her happy normal self. This usually indicates hunger, and when I've fed her, she will often go back to sleep, but not always. So, I don't know if this is a growth spurt, or that she isn't getting enough milk, or a sinister combination of both. I do know that I want it to be fixed.

Exhibit B: Naps are sucky these days. My former excellent napper has been ruined by daycare, I think. While she has always napped poorly at school (at least 1-2 hours less than at home), it never affected her home napping schedule. Now, it has. She is too young to go to 1 nap, but some days only takes two 30 minute naps. Not enough for me or her. I really feel that her explosion of developmental milestones is playing a role here: when she used to wake early, she might lay there and talk to herself and fall back asleep. Now, it becomes sitting up and crawling around and general "get me out of here-ness". I'll ride out the storm and hope it passes soon.

I hadn't mentioned the biting before, but should. Yes, biting. She bit me while nursing about a month ago for the first time. YEOWCH! After I hollered out in pain, I gave her a firm "NO!" and smacked her arm. I sat her up and she cried big, fat crocodile tears. Then smiled and giggled. Stink-er! It has happened fewer than 5 times, none of which were pleasant. I watch her mouth really closely and can see when she is about to bite me and I pull her off. I think it is boredom on her part.

Again, not something I'll miss.

Project Waikiki

Waikiki = Weaning

We are lucky enough to have a HAWAIIAN VACATION planned for October! A professional meeting, combined with free flights and hotel leftover from Huz's traveling days, was just too good to pass up.

And, the Girl is not coming. (Thank you, grandparents!)

This is sad and exciting and sad and exciting, all at the same time. In many ways, I'm glad the timing was already established, because I don't know that we would have gone on a trip so soon. I do think it is healthy for new parents to get away for a vacation at some point, but it is always easier said than done. I'm sure I'll miss her like crazy, and the OCD that will rear it's head whilst planning for her care for 8 days will be a wonder to see.

When the trip was planned, I wasn't sure if I would still be breastfeeding or not. I am, though, and the thought of pumping on my vacation just seemed ridiculous. Plus, the timing is really about perfect - she'll be 10+ months old when we leave. I'm not sure she would have been interested in nursing after 8 days of all bottles, and it seemed like a logical break.

Sniff, sniff.

It does make me sad to think about. I haven't enjoyed every aspect of breastfeeding, but I do like the cuddle time and, more than that, it is now so fast and easy. Five minutes each side and she is done - no warming of bottles or anything else. She is quite the distractible child, though, and now with her mobility I can only imagine that she'll be a progressively squirmy eater.

So ... the process begins.

If you have learned anything about me, it is that I am a Planner. With a capital P. I also have the luxury of doing this on my own time, so I have chosen a lengthy weaning schedule. There is no rush or deadline, other than mid-October hula time!

Girly has been at 4 feedings a day for quite a while now, but I added an "artificial feeding" first thing in the morning, so my body really thought it was more like 5 feedings. I would nurse her first thing in the morning on one side, then pump both sides. I truly feel that this helped keep up my milk supply while working, but it also added complications in the mornings when I needed to get out of the house to work (took too long to feed AND pump). This also significantly added to the milk stash in the freezer.

So, starting this month, I began weaning myself off that first morning pumping. I have always pumped for 15 minutes, so over about 2-3 weeks time I just slowly cut that back to 12 minutes, then 10, 7 and 5 until I just quit all together. Tuesday of this week was the day I stopped. I had Girly nurse on both sides at 6am (which she hasn't done since she was about 8 -10 weeks old) and that was it. I was more "full" than normal for about 2 days, and now I pump more at the 10am feeding time if I am at work, but I think things adjusted themselves well.

Also, starting this month, I cut back all of my pumping times from 15 minutes to 12 and to 10. I haven't noticed that it makes much of a difference, maybe an ounce or so less, but it is faster (yeah!) and I thought it would be helpful for the eventual dropping of feedings.

With my work schedule, I plan to drop feedings on Fridays, every 1-2 weeks, which will give my body about 3 days to adjust until I am back at work again. I'll drop her 2:00pm feeding next Friday, which will be the easiest because my supply is lowest at that point. Then, a week later, I plan to drop the 10:00am feeding, which will be a little harder. This will make for only a 6:00am and a 6:00pm feeding. It also means the end of pumping at work - can you say HALLELUJAH?!?

I plan to wait 2 weeks before dropping the 6:00pm bedtime feeding, but in the meantime, will slowly start to introduce formula. I plan to use every bit of frozen breastmilk (800 oz. and counting!), but will start to introduce 1 bottle a day of half formula and half breastmilk and work up from there.

When I drop the 6:00pm feeding, I'll add 2 bottles a day of half formula, half breastmilk. So, she'll nurse first thing, and have 3 bottles for the rest of her feedings. Some people I know have dropped the bedtime feeding last, but Girly is used to getting a bottle at that time of day, and she is often so tired that she doesn't nurse well anyway. Her morning feeding is the best and it is nice to cuddle in bed - I'll definitely miss it.

About 10 days later, I plan to drop the first morning feeding and be finished. This will be about 2 weeks before we leave for vacation. By the end of that week, all of her bottles will be half breastmilk and half formula. It would certainly be easier to use all formula, but I worked hard for that breastmilk, so we are using it! Plus, it is free!

If I have calculated correctly, I have enough breastmilk to get us through this transition over 2 months, and then I will just use up whatever is left, adding more formula as needed. Just in time for the transition to real milk, dontcha know ...

So, I've penciled in Saturday October 3rd as the last time I'll nurse her. Teary, even now. I think I will really enjoy the freedom, though, and I will feel proud of what I accomplished in 10 months.

And, shortly after, I will be tan and drinking girly drinks by the pool. And I'll be glad Mr. Medela is nowhere in sight.