No boob before bed

It's been 2 weeks now that (most of the time), I am able to put Natallie to sleep at night without nursing her! And she is still sleeping through the night! Yippee *insert happy dance* I only nurse her in the morning now, just once a day! Wow, what a difference compared to a year ago! The picture above was taken at the hospital when she was less than 12 hours old. It's so crazy the way God designed mothers to do this. I mean I can't believe Natallie grew inside me for 9 months, and then after a lot of pain, she came out of me all purple-faced and squishy and covered in yucky white slime. Then my boobs are her exclusive source of nourishment for the next 6 months. I remember for the first several weeks it was such a struggle to get my milk to come in. Natallie had to take some formula and she drank it in a teeny, tiny little cup. I didn't know newborns had cup-drinking skills but apparently they do! The nurses told us to do it this way so it doesn't cause "nipple-confusion". Then I took the magic milk pills that my doctor prescribed and voila, instant dairy bar and milk squirting abundantly across the room!



Simon feeding Natallie with a cup!

 Now that I'm only nursing in the mornings, it makes me think of the early days when she was nursing every 2 hours around the clock. The days where I felt like I did absoluetly nothing but feed her and stare at the puke-stains on my carpet and coutning the bumps in our popcorn ceiling. It was like time stood still. I rememer wishing that I could just get Natallie to the stage where she was not nursing during the day so I could didn't have to plan my outfits around how easily I could get my boob out. And then after that happened, I wished I could get to the point where my boob didn't have to be part of the bedtime routine so I could dare I say, go out in the evening. But now that it's happened, I kinda miss all that exclusive time I had with her. Natallie is so active that I can never get her to stay still and cuddle anymore. I miss the days where she would fall asleep in my arms after I nursed her and I could see the milk puddle in her multiple neck folds. Now when I'm nursing her in the mornings, I am taking the time to savour the moment, I play with her pudgy hands and breathe in her baby hair. Because I know that pretty soon, she won't want to nurse in the mornings either.

Now just a few more months and no more dairly bar at all....and hoping Natallie's first word will be 'mom' and not 'moooo'!