Breastfeeding over half a year later

I meant to make this post around 6 months, but with all the stuff and the lack of blogging, I never got around to it.

It kind of blows my mind when I think about the fact that we've been breastfeeding for 8 months; I never expected to get this far and originally, I didn't even plan to go past 6 months. In the beginning, when we struggling so much, I bumped my goal down to 3 months, but in my head it was really a day by day kind of thing. When we got to 3 months and things were starting to improve, I thought I can do this for another month, and when 4 months rolled around, we were in good place, so I knew I could make it to 6 months. Since that 4 month mark, I haven't really put much thought into goals because I haven't really needed any mental mark to say to myself, just make it this far and then you can quit. Since we started on solids things have gotten even easier. She still feeds 6-7 times a day (at least), but a lot of that is for comfort, and once is in the morning and once is at night, so it isn't really as overwhelming as the constant feeding we use to do. Plus, since around 7 months, I've finally been getting the relaxing feel good hormones everyone says you're supposed to get when the baby is nursing. Now, it is a pleasant bonding experience and something I'm growing to enjoy. She still claws and pinches at my skin and now there is the occasional bite, but even counting all that, it is not nearly as painful as it use to be. I'm not saying I get out of bed every morning thinking, "yay! can't wait!" but we are definitely past the point of being miserable and dreading it. I think I'll actually miss the bonding and cuddling when Madeline decides she is done.

Eating at the GA aquarium