The Final Pumping Chapter

For the past nine-and-a-half months I've been pumping breastmilk for my son.  Long story short, my little peanut never properly/consistently latched on.  After giving it many tries (with the help of a wonderful Lactation Consultant) I decided to bottle feed my son breastmilk and supplement my supply with formula as necessary. 

The first several months I pumped 8 times a day.  That averaged once every 2-3 hours.  The longest stretch of sleep I got during those months was about 3 hours.  Many months later I dropped it down to 6 times a day, then 4 times a day, and most recently, 3 times a day. 

Originally I told myself that I would do this for my child's first 6 months of life.  Since I wasn't employed when he turned 6 months old, I decided to continue to pump.  I'm thankful that I did. 

In just three short weeks I'll be starting a new job.  Hubby assured me that there is plenty of milk stored in our deep freezer and that I really should stop pumping so that I can finally get a decent amount of sleep.  (Even though I only pump 3 times a day, I still get up at 4am to pump). 

Everyone's impressed that I've been able to keep pumping for this long - both my Lactation Consultant and OB praised me for my tenacity - but to me it wasn't an option, I simply did what needed to be done.  I'm looking forward to getting a decent night's sleep again... but a part of me will miss personally providing nourishment for my child.  I honetly didn't think I would feel this sad about my final month of pumping...