A farewell to pumping...

Today was a momentous day in Domi's world. It was my last time at the pump. I am ecstatic beyond words. I wanted to take a picture with my pump and then throw it out the window. But I didn't do either. I will give it a giant smooch before I sterilize the pieces, washout the cooler and put it away, perhaps for another day in the far off future. I will say, now that I'm no longer cursing it's invention, that that pump was a gold mine. I don't know how much we saved from not having to ever buy formula, but I bet it was a tidy little bundle. I should go out right now and buy myself a present with all the money I saved!
I've talked about this with other mothers, particularly my fellow lactator at work, and I feel like now is definitely the right time to stop. We made it to our goal of breast milk for a year, Domingo is now starting to drink whole milk mixed with breastmilk, and as the frozen stock pile dwindles, the mixture will squew more and more towards whole milk until that's all there is. So it was just time. I mean, it's not like you get a medal for longest pumper (but if you did, man I would be all over it!) Although I am pretty darn amazed at the marvel of the human body. My body produced Domingo's entire diet for 6 months, and the bulk of his diet for a year. Domingo is made of milk, that I made. That is pretty incredible, especially considering the size of that boy.
We will probably continue nursing in the morning and at night before bed at least for a little while, we'll see how long the supply will last, but I would really like to cut him off from the over-night boob-buffet. I think weaning Domingo completely will be a bit of a trick as he's really grown accustomed to it as part of his bedtime routine, as well as a source of comfort. He asks to nurse in sign language pretty much as soon as we get him out of the tub, and first thing in the morning he wants to have a cuddle and some nursing time. Although on the few occasions when we haven't been the ones to put him to sleep, he doesn't seem to miss it. I don't want to cut him off cold turkey, especially now that he can articulate that that is what he wants, but I do want to gently encourage him towards weaning, and other sources of comfort and self-soothing. As touchy as those words are, I really believe there is a lot of value in the whole self-soothing concept and want to encourage that in Domi.
As a somewhat unrelated aside, I slept in my aunt's bed until I was like 11 years old, so, not really much of the self-soother myself, but that doesn't mean I don't think it's important.

All these little milestones don't really seem like such a big deal at the time, but looking back, pumping was such a huge part of my life for the last 8 months (I only pumped once a day or so for the 4 months while I was on maternity leave) and now it is over. I suppose I could feel a little meloncholy over it, but I don't at all. Pumping, especially at work, was such a drag, and a total time drain. I hope to use those extra 30 minutes a day to be more productive and get home earlier! (Yeah right! What it will actually mean is I don't have an excuse to close my door w/ my "enter at your own risk" sign so I can go online and read my daily dose of blogs! I'll have to sneak it in at lunch.)
I'm sure I'll feel a little whistful when we actually quit nursing, but I am really looking forward to wearing bras that don't give me "double cleavage" as Chris puts it.
So it's with a grateful sigh of relief that I bid adieu to my pump in style. No longer will it need to reassure me with its' eerie mechanical "goodjob goodjob" and then hear my sharp inhale as it changes gears to "feelthebeat feelthebeat". Ah mammeries, I mean, memories. No we shall not say goodbye, but only, until next time, Medela pump in style, until next time.