Monday
Oct122009
Milestone Monday
Monday, October 12, 2009 
Today is a special day. Not only is it Thanksgiving here in Canada, a time to hang out with family and stuff ourselves full of turkey, but it is a day of milestones for me, for my kids, for our family.
- A baby no more? Today my daughter is the same age that my son was when my daughter was born. It feels odd. Odd to not have the next one on the way. Odd to be done with the baby stage. Odd because she seems like more of a baby still than my son did when she was born, but not based on any specific milestone (in fact she has him beat on a lot of them), but maybe just because she will always be my baby.
- Five years of nursing: I have now officially been breastfeeding for five years. My son weaned 1.5 months before my daughter was born and it has now been 5 years and 1.5 months since he was born. Five years of protecting my health, protecting my kids health, and enjoying the closeness of a nursing relationship.
That's it. I was going to write a long nostalgic post about it, but I don't really have the words to explain my feelings and I want to spend my day with my family instead of typing away here.
Reader Comments (16)
Very sweet. I don't blame you--go have fun with those kids.
Happy Milestone Monday (and Thanksgiving). I hope you enjoy this day, your family, and how far you all have traveled together.
And in case you weren't aware: your wee ones are adorable.
TIME TO HAVE ANOTHER ONE!
Congratulations! Beautiful kids. <3
Oh! Those are *exactly* the feelings I had when my second daughter reached the same age as my first was when she was born. I just kept thinking, where is my third..? Why are we not carrying on with another...? So bittersweet. And that was when I had to really come to terms with the fact that there will be no third, hard as that was.
I have been breastfeeding for just over 4 years, and it amazes me that this -- that now seems such a part of my life -- ever wasn't... and that it won't be again, one day. So surreal how we move through stages of life like this. Oddly enough, I just blogged last night about what a joy extended breastfeeding has turned out to be. I shall miss it when this stage comes to an end.
Lovely post, wonderful milestones. So appropriate for the holiday. Happy Thanksgiving.
We seem to be experiencing similar milestones! I was just shy of 5 years of breastfeeding, as my littlest one decided to wean at 3.5--about a month and a half before Gabriel's fifth birthday. It is hard realizing that you don't have a baby anymore, isn't it? I just keep snuggling my friends' newborns and enjoying vicariously through them, but part of me is still sad that I won't have another baby in this lifetime. Have a wonderful holiday with your children and enjoy those milestones...
Wonderful post and great pictures! Congratulations on breastfeeding for five years! I can't believe I've made it eight months with Oscar, and I hope to go as long as you did.
Congratulations! It is a milestone indeed! My journey started in January 2003 and with 2 children, hasn't stopped yet! It is fun though:)
Awwww! Congrats on 5 years going strong. :) It's off how the "baby" stays the baby. I can't seem my middle one as anything bigger than a baby still.
Congrats on meeting your milestone this weekend! I can relate to the baby always feeling like the baby. Even though Q is 8 years old, he still feels so young to me compared to how F felt when he was 8.
Five years!!??!! Congratulations on meeting THAT milestone as well. As a mom who breastfed for 9 straight years (F weaned when Q was around 6 months old) I am waiting to reach the milestone where I have parented longer WITHOUT breastfeeding than with. Only 7 years to go! ;)
You ROCK mama!!!
Congratulations - a perfect way to remember and celebrate Thanksgiving, I think!
Breastfeeding and Thanksgiving go very well together - both are sort of feasts in their own right. I hope you had a great day. :)
And this is totally off-topic, but my own daughter has the exact same garden shoes. I think we must have all visited the same store back in the spring, I see them everywhere.
I love your son's expression in the top pic...it's like he's kind of wondering who the new kidlet is. My son had a similar expression in his first big brother/little sister pic. Congrats on hitting a happy milestone!
Wow, great photos; happy times! Very cool. Congrats on 5 years of nursing! :D
(and two healthy kiddos!)
This post got me all choked up. I remember feeling that same way when we reached that milestone in my house. My son had been weaned for all of two months when I found out I was pregnant with my daughter. And now they are 6 and 4 and those days of breastfeeding & diapers & having babies seems like such a long time ago. I too miss the closeness of nursing, but know a big part of how close we are now is due to that bond we built while nursing. I hope you enjoy your holiday!
Congrats. Reading this made me realize just how close our kids are in age as I have been nursing for just over five years as of about three weeks ago. And I hear you on enjoying the holidays. I wrote a short post on Monday too. :)