I am a homeschooling mother of three (ages 11, 8 and 4), and I recently stopped nursing my third child through natural weaning. I spent nearly 10 consecutive years nursing my three children, with only a three month break between my second and third. I breastfed through bleeding nipples with my first until a call to a LLL member taught me proper latch-on, I tandemed nursed my first and second, I nursed my second through a week in a high-needs nursery, and I nursed my third through my own serious uterine infection following his birth. Needless to say, breastfeeding has been a constant in my life, and natural weaning has been a very bittersweet process for me.
I wrote the following poem so that I will always remember, and can share with my children, the gifts we each gave and received during our breastfeeding days.
Bittersweet Good-Bye
I said goodbye today
To a pure, sweet, simple joy
The tugging of three little souls
My precious girls and one sweet boy
A decade of my life
While gone in one brief flash
Each moment spent giving such sacred love
An eternity did last
While little hands tangled in my hair
My first girl nursed past three
A brand new gift was given
To her but also me
My second born early
I fought to make it so
When finally we connected
The healing power flowed
My first reached out with sleepy love
To take her sister's hand
The three of us connected
A new stage of life began
More than I expected
The demands of nursing two
With bittersweet goodbyes
We slowly made it through
My second nursed until my third
Was well on his way
We ended one sweet afternoon
While by her beach warmed skin I laid
This final time I was the one
Who could not yet begin
So ever patiently he waited
For me to come to him
When at last his little mouth found me
A mutual nourishment began
My fears of lost connection gone
His security regained
No part of life before this
Did I ever feel so deep
The smells and sounds of nursing angels
Are memories I will always keep
The love in little eyes
Peering up at me so sweet
The quivering of little chins
As sleep and nursing meet
I'm forever grateful for the gifts
Both given and received
That will sustain the four of us
More than I would ever have believed
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