And, It's Done...

The nursing has ended. Over. Complete. Finished. And, although this also marks Isla growing up, outgrowing her baby stage, becoming more and more of a toddler, I am happy about it.

Nursing has never been a real enjoyment for me. Sure, I do love the baby snuggled up to me, staring into my eyes. But, I never saw a difference with the bottle. It was still snuggle time. Still connecting and bonding time. Why didn't I just do that the whole first year if I enjoyed it more than nursing? Well, one, formula is extremely expensive. Two, nursing is way easier and much more convenient, hello 2 am feeding. Three, Isla would not take a bottle if her life depended on it. If I pumped and filled a bottle for her, she snubbed it right away. She would scream for hours before she would take a bottle. Obviously, I didn't get out much, or when I did, it was a timed getaway. And, the fourth reason I breastfeed is because it's the best. The healthiest for the baby. That is pretty much the only real important reason that I did it for a year for both of them. And, I will do it again for a year with the next one. And, the one after that. (No offense to anyone who did not breastfeed. No judgement here. Nor am I hinting at how many children we want!)

She just now started taking a bottle without any problem. I have no idea what changed. I actually wasn't even going to try a bottle anymore and go straight to sippy cups since she has no problem drinking out of them during the day. But, she just wasn't drinking much milk when it was in/ the sippy cup. I figured I would try warming up the milk and just give a bottle one more try. She did great with it. It took her a minute to figure out how to suck on it. (She has never been able to figure out how to suck on a bottle nipple or a pacifier. It's so strange because she had no problem nursing, even in the beginning.) But, after a couple minutes, she hasn't had any trouble since. And, switching to cows milk was not difficult, like I thought it might be. She had found Sahara's sippy cup of milk one day about two months ago, and just started drinking it, no problem. I started trying to give her a bottle of warm cows milk before nap each day, and at first she wasn't too sure about it, but after two days, she started gulping it down. And, now she loves it. She now gets excited when she sees her bottle before nap, bedtime, and in the early morning.

Two days ago, instead of nursing her in the morning around 5am, I warmed up a bottle for her, wondering and hoping she wouldn't have a major fit for not nursing, since mornings were the only time I was nursing her. No fit. Not even a tiny whine. She just drank it and went right back to sleep. So, that was the end of nursing.

I really thought Isla would be the baby that would have a hard time nursing, because she loved it so much. I was sort of dreading the weaning and switching to cows milk, but she has surprised me with how easy it all was, considering she was not an easy-going baby. She has begun to turn into an entirely different tiny person, lately. So happy. So funny. Really, just fun to be around.

This age is seriously my favorite.