the brown family

Well, Charlotte will be 11 months next week so I am beginning to wean her now. I'd like her to be ready to drink milk on her 1st birthday. She is really good at drinking from her sippy cup so hopefully this will be a smooth transition! Since she was about 6 months old I've been nursing her 4 times a day (7, 11, 3, and 7). But, as she's been eating more and more table food she has really lost interest in her midday feedings. We have to be in a private place because she is so easily distracted! So this week I dropped her 3 pm feeding. 

We had such a rough time getting started with breastfeeding. The lactation consultant said she was just sucking to shallow?! and that hopefully as she got older she would be able to do this better. The first week home was horrible - she lost way too much weight and cried literally the whole time (I would too if I wasn't getting enough to eat!). So after a trip to the lactation consultant I had to begin pumping to get my milk supply back and get her some food to eat. Ahhh pumping....little did I know that I'd be pumping ALL the time for the next 2 1/2 months!! But, PRAISE GOD we finally got the hang of it! I appreciate being able to offer Charlotte a bottle every now and then but breastfeeding is so much easier! All this to say, I am very thankful for all that the Lord taught me during that very trying time and that we were finally able to breasfeed. Besides the fact that breasfeeding is nutritionally superior, provides all kinds of immunity, and helped me lose the baby weight (yeah!), I have really come to love the special time spent with Charlotte. And I will miss it!