Finished!

Within a few days of leaving the hospital we had a couple awful nights with C. Nothing could console him. He would screw up his little face and scream. We tried the swing, holding him, bouncing, rocking, his vibrating bouncy seat, even the car! It was so sad! We couldn't figure out what was wrong!

I was nursing him at the time and we pin pointed that it was something I'd eaten, specifically lasagna. I soon discovered that C couldn't tolerate tomatoes in any form. (Bye, bye spaghetti, pizza, lasagna, salsa, and italian.) Unfortunately, those were not the only things he couldn't stomach. Soon my list grew to include:

Coffee
Chocolate
Onion
Garlic
Peppers
A lot of dairy
Chinese
Mexican food

So basically all of my favorite foods. Nursing didn't really end up working for me, but I very much wanted to give C breast milk because of all the benefits. ( Have you ever been to a hospital class about breast feeding? They tell you that your child will have less allergies, be smarter, have a stronger immune system, read younger, have better hand eye coordination, have less ear infections, and grow up to have super powers. Ok, I made up the last one, but really, they make it a big deal.)

So, I decided to pump for him. My goal: one year. I had no idea what a huge time commitment it would be. At first I had to pump 6-8 times a day (Including in the middle of the night) to keep up with C's demand. Until just 2 months ago I was pumping 5-6 times a day. It meant every time I went somewhere I had to think about finding a place to pump or working around getting back home to do it. And of course I still couldn't eat any foods off my list.

C turned one on the 3rd. This Saturday I pumped for the last time. It was kind of ridiculous how excited I was to be done. Since then I have eaten a chocolate blizzard, salsa, chocolate fudge granola bars, onion, ketchup, and tonight I'm making Lasagna! I plan to get coffee ASAP. I'm a bit of a coffee snob, so I want to wait until I could get to my favorite shop to get a traditional macchiato. (2 shots of espresso with two oz. milk. Seriously amazing!) 

There were many times a long the way I wanted to quit, but I'm glad I stuck with it. There have been several benefits. C hasn't had any ear infections, only a few colds, and is well on his way to being able to cut holes through walls with his laser eyes.

Mission accomplished.