The End of an Era

Last night when Maddie and I settled down into our recliner to nurse before bed...nothing. And I mean nothing. She got a tiny bit frustrated, bit me, and then gave up. So, I fetched her cup of milk, and we did the usual routine of rocking and singing, only with her sippy instead of nursing. And guess what? I laid her in her crib, covered her up, and she went to sleep! Now, I'm not naive enough to believe that it will always be this easy, I mean even when she was nursing we still had bad nights trying to get her to go to sleep. But last night was a good start to a new era. I nursed Maddie significantly longer than any of my other children (the longest before her was 6 months), and this baby-deciding-when-to-stop-and-just-letting-my-milk-slowly-dry-up method is the way to go! No painful engorgement, no traumatized baby. I'm a bit sad, since she is the last baby I'll ever have (unless I fall on the wrong side of the 99% effectiveness statistic, please God no), but mostly I just feel free. Now I can ship her off to Grandma's when Taylor goes...yipee!