Weaning by the numbers

Little D is 9 months today. NINE MONTHS! He is crazy, crawling boy and thinks he can walk, though he cannot.  I told myself that I would breastfeed until he was 9 months, and now that it's here, I'm walking a fine line between weaning and not weaning.

As of last week, I have stopped pumping at work.  As of today, I have no more frozen breastmilk in my freezer. Sad day.  All that means is that I nurse D 3 times a day (AM, 4:00pm, night time) and then he gets 2 bottles when he's at school.  He's boycotting the bottle right now, but that's a post for another time, along with my (his?) food woes.  After our baby-less trip last weekend--4 days away total--I was afraid that my milk was just gone. I could barely pump 2 ounces and I was sad, because even if I weaned D during the day, I at least wanted to nurse him in the morning and before bed.  But as soon as we got home and I started nursing again, my body stepped up and met his needs. Pretty awesome.

Breastfeeding this long is one of my greatest accomplishments, and I think I've done a lot of pretty good things in my life.  We struggled; at 3 weeks I wanted to throw out the boob and in the bottle, but we persevered.  I am so proud of myself, and if you know me at all, you know it takes a lot for me to give myself kuddos or a pat on the boob for anything.  My goal is to nurse him, at least AM and PM, until he turns 1, or until there's a baby #2 that may make nursing him impossible.  While I do miss being able to feed him five times a day on the weekend, I do NOT miss the close, personal relationship with my pump.

I bid a fond farewell to the whiny pump noise...and as a parting gift, here are some numbers...

• 80--days I pumped at work (since August only)
• 4800--minutes I spent pumping at work (since August only)
• 120--disposable pump wipes I used
• 3--boxes of breastmilk storage bags now gone
• 160--ounces of milk I once had in my freezer
• 2--ounces of milk I ended up pumping once D started eating more solids
• 6--bottles of Fenugreek I've gone through since February
• 8--times D has bitten me since he's gotten teeth (a relatively low number considering he's had teeth for a while now)
• 4--ounces of milk/formula D is drinking at each feeding, when he decides he wants the bottle
• 4--airport bathrooms in different cities in which I have pumped
• 3--states I have pumped in 
• 2--times I've had to take out multiple bags of breastmilk to go through TSA security
• 1--time I was asked "ma'am, what is in that bag" referring to my pump
• 1--wedding dinner I've had to leave to pump 
• 0--number of times I regret schlepping my pump EVERYWHERE 

A post I've been writing in my head for some time about working moms v. SAHMs is imminent, once I get the clarity of mind to write all of the thoughts down that are crammed in my head. 

Happy Thanksgiving :)