I had a pretty easy pregnancy until the last few months when my sweet baby would not/could not turn out of her breech position which resulted in a scheduled c-section. It wasn’t part of my “plan” but it was what was safest for both of us and turned out to be a very positive experience for my husband and me. I was lucky to have a great physician and nurse who worked with me to have the most natural c-section possible. We had a mirror in the OR so I could watch her birth which was followed by skin to skin within 1 minute of her birth right there on the OR table! She rode back to the recovery room right there on my chest.
But thank goodness for lanolin!
I’m so grateful for the family support we had in those first few weeks. Breastfeeding advice from my mom and sister was essential and my husband was so supportive to whatever we needed.
When I got down to bringing home 1 oz after a whole shift I knew my pumping time was coming to a close. But I wanted to continue nursing her as long as SHE wanted. Sadly, that time came at about 14 months old. She had been showing declining interest for many weeks and I remember one morning specifically when I was trying to get her to nurse and she looked up at me with a “what are you doing mom? I’m done” kind of look and I knew. That was one of the last nursing sessions we shared. I was sad to be done but knew that it had happened as naturally as possible and on HER timeline. But oh how I LOVED nursing my baby! I cherished that time with her and was sad to see it end but not devastated as I was worried I would be. It was an amazing time to reflect back on those early days of nursing a brand new baby that I could hold in one arm and to watch her grow into this big toddler who’s legs hung over the arm of the nursery chair that we spent so much time in.
Be sure to catch up with the rest of the Breastfeeding Diaries at the top of my navigation bar.
Nice post. I'm so glad you came to the conclusion that you were doing everything you could to be the best mother to your baby. Every mother's story is different but in the end we all have to accept that we are doing our best. You have a lovely family (people and pets!)