The End of a Season

This post is about breastfeeding.  It is not something that I feel the need to talk about often on the blog, but it is something that I have been blessed to do.  I feel strongly about supporting a Mom's right to feed her baby the best way she can.  I wrote the rest of this post last week.

Malachi, 10 months

This morning when Malachi woke up I changed his diaper and took him downstairs for breakfast.  This was the first morning that he didn't nurse.  I knew this day was coming, he has steadily been dropping his other feedings through out the day, but today I made the decision to be done breastfeeding him.  I think he was ready to be done, but I am still not sure how I feel.

Addison, Bennett, and Garrett each at 1 month old.

 Nursing a baby is a huge commitment and I am thankful to have made it 10 months with Malachi.  As this journey has come to an end Jon and I have been talking about the last 8 years since we became parents.  We realized how much of my adult life has been spent with someone else depending on my body for sustenance; whether pregnant or breastfeeding.  We counted up how many months and we figured out that out of the last 96 months I have been pregnant or breastfeeding for 80 of those months!  I know I haven't breastfed for as long as some, but that is a significant number to me.

When I first became Mommy, April 30, 2007

Weaning Malachi has been significant in the fact that he is our last baby, as far as we are planning.  I am always hesitant to speak in absolutes when it comes to our family because I believe God holds the plans in His hands, but as far as we are concerned Malachi is the last baby that I am planning on carrying.  To end a season of life that has been so precious to me is very hard, but it is time.
Our kids are growing up into great little people.  We have fun with them and we are loving seeing them learn and grown and develop their own personalities.  Keeping up with each of those personalities takes a lot of work too, work that is hard for me to do when I am carrying or caring for an infant.
Malachi is still my baby, and to some extant he always will be, but he is also ready to move up to the world of the big kids.  He loves to be with them, playing with them and doing just what they are doing.
I love our family and I am in awe every day that I get to be Mommy to these 4 amazing kids.