i-friday {the bottle blues}

I missed this past Friday's i-friday post as I was starting a mind & body detox/cleanse and was trying my hardest to stay offline and focus on family and wellbeing.  So - two days late - here we are!  This post is dedicated to all the mommies out there - your courageous path through motherhood is to be commended! This photo comes with a little sadness - I snapped this of my youngest daughter holding her bottle all by herself.  What an accomplishment, you might say!  The reason I'm a tad sad is because we have breastfed for the past 8 months (and I still do once or twice a day...) and she has basically weaned herself off of me and onto a bottle.  She has deciced she's just too impatient for the *boob (sorry, am I allowed to say that?!)  It has been my heart's desire to breastfeed my babies since....forever...at least since I knew the importance of breastfeeding.  I struggled through one whole month nursing my oldest daughter and it panned out quickly.  This time, through much sleep deprivation, tears, sweat, laughter and google-searches, I made it to the "happy place" of nursing my youngest.  Now, even though I know "breast is best", I'm essentially not worried about her being poisened or anything by drinking formula and in a round-a-bout way, this has been a blessing in disguise as I gear up for a very busy photography-year, started some new nutritional habits and, sorry if this sounds completely selfish, starting wear normal, non-nursing bras.  I truly am happy that we just made it this far - this is an accomplishment in itself and I know that my sweet baby has received an incomparable nutritional foundation that will hopefully serve her well as she grows and grows...and grows.   So, my boob career as I called it, has ended and I sense our relationship changing - she's such a big girl, crawling and climbing and talking and dancing.  I love that we still have our snuggle nursing-time, even if it is only once a day but I get to enjoy a whole new side of her as she slowly grows into her feisty, headstrong, independence that I knew even in the womb she would have!