A Celebration Dance!

Boy, it has been a rough couple of weeks around here.  I have known since before Lily was born, that I wanted to nurse her for six months (or at least try to) and then begin to wean her to bottles and solids.  As a planner-type person, that sounded great in theory- until it came time to actually accomplish it!

There are many lessons I learned the hard way through this process, but that is another post for another day.  When Lily was first born, six months sounded like forever away.  As her six month birthday rapidly approached,  I was completely caught off guard by the roller coaster of emotions that took over my heart.  I literally had what I call "Father of the Bride moments" where I could see Lily's life flashing before my eyes...junior high, high school, college, marriage...so many good byes before me and suddenly our time together felt so short and so precious! I am serious when I say I was an emotional wreck and have been a literal puddle of tears for nearly two weeks as I began preparing myself for saying goodbye to those sweet snuggles and quiet moments spent with my Lilygirl.  I'm not sure why the huge surge of emotions as I prepared to begin weaning, but it just hit me that all of the sudden that Lily was growing so big and time was passing so quickly...just as everyone said it would.

Nursing Lily has been one of my all time favorite experiences- ever.  I love those sweet, quiet moments together and have treasured all of them- even the ones in the middle of the night!  So when it actually came time to saying goodbye to that season in our lives, I suddenly didn't know if I could do it.

You may not know this, but Miss Lily has a stubborn streak.  She is the sweetest little gal, but when you try to feed her a bottle, she will LET. YOU. KNOW. that that is simply unacceptable.  She has never been a bottle gal, or even a binky gal...and the reality of this was driven home to me as we tried to introduce bottles over the past week and a half.  There were many, MANY tears (by both her and myself), many phone calls to the doctor's office, many hours of feeling hopeless, many emails sent to friends and many prayers whispered.  I was so worried she was going to starve or lose weight and not grow and stop developing.  I'm serious.  I was losing sleep.  So I read everything I could find on the topic, and I tried everything! I tried several different products, techniques, locations and for a few days it seemed like we were even going backwards!  But then, little by little she started to eat a tiny bit more, and struggle a little bit less.  And then then a little bit more...day by day and finally....just today...we went all day without any tears and with many ounces of formula consumed!

Needless to say, it was a HUGE victory and Lily and I were so excited that we busted out the tutu for the big celebration dance party that we held in the living room!  (And as you can see, all celebratory dances are better in tutus!)

In my hours and days of worry, anxiety and more worry, I spoke with many other mothers and friends and received a lot of great advice, wisdom, support and encouragement. I was reminded again that I have AWESOME friends in my life and am so blessed to be surrounded by so many incredible women.  My friend, April told me that although I was ending one chapter with Lily, by doing so, I was also allowing so many other new and amazing ones to open and begin.  I loved those words and it was exactly what I needed to hear.  It made my heart excited for all that is ahead instead of already missing what is behind.

I know there will be so many more challenges ahead in this journey of motherhood and what I have learned through this one is that I'm not alone, there is so much more good stuff ahead and that with God, all things are possible!

Lily now drinks from a bottle with enthusiasm and I couldn't help but wipe a couple of tears and celebrate that HUGE accomplishment with her today.  To God be the glory!