This day, last week...

Dear Gabdu,

Last week mamma was to attend meetings at the client site. It was sudden and unplanned .. And well at the customer site mamma cud not pump as the meetings were all day long , mamma cud not leave them and moreover I am sure it wud not have been very easy to ask the client who met me for the first time for a secluded room where mamma cud pump. Well... so it finally happened...mamma has stopped pumping ... In a way it was good that it happened suddenly and in an unplanned fashion, as that way mamma did not feel too bad.. Also it expedited what was gonna happen 2 -3 mnths down the line anyways ... But somewhere mamma feels bad too for substituting the nourishing and protecting mammas milk for the cows milk ( which I am sure is best for the calf but not so sure if it can be anywhere close to mothers milk for human babies).
You have adapted beautifully and its been a relatively hassle free transition to cows milk for the 4 pm feed u usually have ( abt 5-6 oz). So to that extent u have not contributed to additional guilt around this. However , like I always feel weaning is more for the mom than for the kid .. so somewhere there is a feeling of sadness and loss for mamma ..
To transition to cows milk and to wean is a very personal decision for each mother but it is a very big and not so easy decision as such ..I mean I know for sure that mothers milk is the best ... I don't need scientific evidence and books to tell me that simply because I know that it is there in the first place for this purpose and every mammal nourishes its little ones with its own milk and its only in humans that a substitute comes up.At the same time there is a nagging fear that a mother may be making the child too dependent on her by not letting the child have an alternative source... so what happens if the milk dries up and so on .... The questions are endless and the social pressures on this count also are immense .. most people seem to think its boorish to be nursing ur child esp beyong 1st year. I plan to continue till u self wean or till 2 yrs, whichever is earlier ... So lets see how it goes ...
Anyways the upshot of this post is to tell u that mamma has hung up the pump and so u now take one substitute feed whereas the rest are still mammas duddhu :). So the nice thing abt this is no more sterlisation of pump and bottles giving mamma a good additional 15-30 mins with u and pappa . Also mamma can spend the 30 mins at work actually working instead of pumping which means the late hrs at work if any can be avoided ... so yippppeee :)
Don't ya worry ... I will get over my sadness over this by loooking at these positive things !Meanwhile I shall let ur patti have a blast at feeling less dependent on mamma and having her way in feeding u cows milk :))
luv
mamma