Yups, this is it.
Bittersweet.
I guess I should look forward to the brighter side of things...
No more ratty, lumpy, spineless nursing bras... and perhaps, I would be able to sleep bra-less again. Woohoo! (Sorry, if it's TMI.)
No more bringing the pump on family vacations and scheduling our activites around my pumping times. No more figuring out how to store expressed breastmilk whenever we are away from home and our trusty refrigerator.
No more pumping. Period. No more pump parts and storage bottles to wash. No more midnight pumps. Hopefully, this also means that we will be able to arrive in church on time on Sundays because I will no longer be too tired to wake up in the mornings and there will be no pumping on Sunday mornings. I will finally be able to eat breakfast on Sundays.
With smaller boobs (again TMI), I will be able to fit better into my clothes, assuming that I haven't expanded in other places. I've gotta get me some new dresses too.
No more having to watch what I eat, just in case Sophie gets wind/allergies from what goes into the milk... or lest my milk supply dips. Wine? No problem. Beer? No problem. Cabbage? No problem. Pseudoephedrine? No problem. Junkfood? Here I come. Mangoes? I will eat all the mangoes I want.
No more cracked and bleeding nipples. No more blood stains on bras. No more painful blocked ducts that necessitate consuming those abominable-tasting lecithin granules. No more painful boobs, unless it's due to menstrual hormones. (TMI)
I can finally stop having weird food cravings in the middle of the night and go to sleep instead of eating away guiltily. (But wait, I will have no more excuse to splurge on my favourite desserts!)
Looks like it's goodbye to my pumping journey too.
Well then, it has been a wonderful journey, despite all the blood and sweat (literally). I thank God for the grace and pleasure of having been able to provide breastmilk for Sophie for 13+ months, especially when I am an EP mom. I never thought that I would be able to come this far. Never thought that I would have the strength to persevere either.
To the dear friend(s) who suggested that I pump instead of giving up on breastfeeding entirely when I was having so many problems directly latching Sophie in those early days, thank you. To my community of pumping and DL-ing mummies, thank you for your encouragement. To my husband, who helped out all he could so that I could do my EP-ing duties well, thank you. To those who helped me with Sophie whenever I needed to pump, thank you.
Hello, life-after-breastfeeding. Here I come.
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