In Memoriam.

It was beautiful while it lasted...

There are three reasons for breast-feeding: the milk is always at the right temperature; it comes in attractive containers; and the cat can't get it.
~Irena Chalmers

It started when Washburn chewed a hole in her Boppy. And she didn't like Anaya's old Boppy and Anaya didn't like Breanne using her Boppy. We'd cut down to morning, afternoon and bedtime. Then it was just afternoon and bedtime. And then just bedtime.

And now it's been over a week since Breanne last nursed. It's so bittersweet.

My opinion is that anybody offended by breastfeeding is staring too hard. ~David Allen

Three months spent sleeping on a futon or the sofa downstairs in our house in WA so I had immediate access to the kitchen, bathroom and computer for nights that she didn't want to sleep or wanted nothing else but to be rocked and nursed. Finally finding confidence in myself nursing in public. Battling and justifying to my mother when she came out to visit. Marv stepping in and telling my mother what's what when I was nursing in plain view at the Experience Music Project in Seattle. Seven weeks of dirty looks, complaints and battling my entire family when we went out to visit in April. After all the whining and complaints, threatening Marv that I was done when she reverted to a newborn's nursing schedule after the move to Nevada.

It is only in the act of nursing that a woman realizes her motherhood in visible and tangible fashion; it is a joy of every moment.
~Honore de Balzac

All the support that I found at Granola Chicks. The encouragement to keep going because while it may not have been convenient for me, it's what was best for Breanne. All the inspiring stories from all the wonderful mamas who've nursed multiple children, tandem nursed, searched for solutions to issues that have come up, have overcome those issues and pressed on and found the joy in such a beautiful bonding experience. We made it 15 glorious, beautiful, trying, frustrating and fulfilling months. I'm sad to see it end, but so proud of how far we've come.

A newborn baby has only three demands. Their warmth in the arms of its mother, food from her breasts, and security in the knowledge of her presence. Breastfeeding satisfies all three.
~Grantly Dick-Read