Something I can live without.

It's a pretty typical Monday today. We're experiencing an awesome spring thunderstorm. The mouse is in bed and our dinner is in the oven. We'll probably watch some Arrested Development before we both get some work done. Nothing too exciting.

Except...

Today is absolutely thrilling for me in one big way. Because today is the last day I'm spending quality time the pump. We've been constant companions, the pumps and I, since the day Evelyn was born. I pretty much hated pumping from that day onward. But I did it. I sat with both hands on the bottles*. Sometimes I felt trapped. Sometimes I heard the pump talking to me as it undulated. Sometimes I counted the seconds when I didn't have a clock handy, to be sure that I pumped for 15 minutes (that's 900 seconds, in case you were wondering). Sometimes it hurt and sometimes it was relief from various pains I'd have when nursing. Sometimes I'd choose pumping over eating or going to the bathroom, when time was scarce between classes.

But it was worth it.

The laws of supply and demand worked and I kept making enough milk even when Evelyn was teeny tiny and not strong enough to get it herself yet. I made extra milk to store for her so she'd have some while I was in class, or meetings, or with clients, or at a week-long conference in San Francisco last week.

And now (thanks in part to that trip which forced our hand a little...) we've started to make the switch to whole cow's milk. Sometimes mixed with my milk, but increasingly less so. I still nurse in the morning and before bed. Evelyn hasn't minded at all. I may or may not have cried about it already. But I'm not crying about the end to pumping. Not one tear will be shed for that. In fact, I think it calls for a celebration.

*Maybe next time around I'll spring for one of these. They look absolutely ridiculous, but if I could use my hands during those countless 15 minute sessions, oh the things I could have accomplished. Jonathan just saw that and suggested that I could wear the pump as a backpack (it comes in a backpack carrier) and walk around and pump. Brilliant.