Weaned

Genesis 21:7-8 "And she added, “Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age. The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast."

 Last night was the first night that Ryker went to bed without nursing. I never thought I would care much as I honestly never really enjoyed breastfeeding. I felt that it was more just a motherly duty, but was still pretty teary eyed when I had to say goodnight to him. I only nursed Gunnar for about 4 months and had to stop more out of a necessity after having mastitis twice and Gunnar had constant thrush. However, I got mastitis THREE times during this past year of nursing him, but stuck with it. I would say they bouts of it weren't as bad, but that simply isn't true, they were just as awful. Ryker just took to breastfeeding a little easier. I felt like I always struggled with Gunnar, so that could possibly have made the difference.
A year was my goal and I made it. Ryker only used a bottle a few times when left with the babysitter. I will say he probably had formula a total of 5 times when I was unable to produce enough milk to leave some behind for him. He has transitioned nicely to the sippy cup, he is still getting used to cow's milk, but is taking to it slowly.
I have slowly been weaning him the past month or so. He really cut back on nursing at the beginning of August, so I thought it was my chance. He pretty much cut himself down to morning, before nap, and before bed. Then I cut out the before nap about 2 weeks later, then a week later the morning feeding, and then last night we removed the final feeding before bed. I would say I only felt uncomfortable one of those days. Last night his first night without nursing he cried for about 5 minutes before drifting off into a sleep and he woke up once during the night. Tonight, his second boob free night....not a single tear. He just laid down and went to sleep.
Kyle is quite thrilled with breastfeeding coming to an end. Who knew it effected him. He says Arbraham threw a feast because he got his wife back. Ryker still isn't sure if he is sharing me as he has been quite clingy lately, but I do think he may finally be teething. While I may not have bore a child in my old age like Sarah, I do agree that weaning a child is worth a celebration, Kyle and I will be going and doing something fun just the two of us to celebrate tomorrow!