The beginning of the end.

All moms have their different way and plan to feed their newborn baby; mine was to breast feed for at least 6 months. Because I had no idea what my journey was going to be as a lactating mom, I decided to take it a month at a time. Although I don't judge those who don't haven't, it has become important to me as time has gone that Gracie have as much breast milk in the first year of her life as possible. The more I have read and thought about it, the more important it has become. This has not been the easiest goal to uphold for several reasons:

1: While on maternity leave it's very hard to squeeze in an extra feeding when they are eating all the time. 2: Pumping at work is a pain in the booty with dragging all the goods back and forth, worrying about cleaning and disinfecting the bottles and stuff constantly (boil, microwave in the special bag... What's best? How often?) 3: You get very burnt out taking time away from whatever else you are doing to sit for 20 minutes and have your boobs stretched, which isn't the most comfortable thing.

Then there is storage of the milk, etc. with all of this said, I had made it to 8 months, but then I started to get lazy. I guess that is my breaking point because last week I started to only pump twice a day instead of three times. I can already tell my breast milk has adjusted to a little less. I also knew that once I started to cut back on feeding I would start my period ( a major downside to cutting back on pumping). I have mixed emotions about this. I'm a little excited since it means my life will start (only start) to be my own again. I will have more time during my day and not be so slammed trying to stuff in pumps. It also is nice because Gracie has begun to eat more regular food! (Which is a very exciting stage in itself. ) My other major emotion is sadness. It means it is the beginning of slowly stopping breast feeding; of my baby being a big girl soon. It's bittersweet but I wouldn't change it for the world!