The End of Nursing

I'm thinking nursing is coming to an end soon. Between 12 and 13 months, Rachel basically weaned herself, showing less and less interest in nursing and just nursing for a few minutes once or twice a day until she was just done completely.

Ben is 12 1/2 months now, and I've been seeing him losing some interest, but not all. Still, we're down to just one time of nursing in the morning most days. Sometimes I nurse him again in the afternoon or before bed if he needs calming, but we're getting into a pattern of just the morning feeding and he's doing fine. He's drinking whole milk from a cup or sippy cup, too, and doing fairly well with that. No digestive problems with it, thank the Lord.

Ben also started biting while nursing about a month ago. At that point, I wasn't even sure we were going to continue for more than a few days, since he bit me so hard one time that he broke the skin. But he thankfully hasn't bitten that hard again. I think it helped that I was ending the nursing sessions when he'd bite.

The end of nursing is bittersweet. On the one hand, it will be good to have my body back and, hopefully, be back to my normal size. And it will be nice not to have to wear nursing bras. But I'll miss the physical closeness, the ability to quickly calm Ben (usually), and the times when he stops and coos and looks at me. Nursing can be a pain, no doubt about it, but it's also a wonderful gift for moms.