Monday, July 23, 2007

The First Time Away a Mother Never Forgets

(sorry for the edits -- Iwas trying to get rid of some weird extra spaces, and then everything was centralized, yikes!)
I had never been 24 hours away from my youngest son, not until today. And I'd spent two nights (not in a row) away from my oldest, but that was when I had to travel with newborn Linton to my brother-in-law's wedding in Texas 3 years ago and our tickets were almost 24h apart.

I know that they're doing well at my parents' house, after all, at 5.5 and 3 they're old enough to be away from me. This week we'll be away for 3 days, next week for 5 days.

I guess this will mean full weaning for Linton.

I can't help but tear up at this thought, but we're definitely ready. He'd even been talking about it for weeks before the trip: "In Brazil I'm going to nurse, but then mommy will go to the conference and I won't nurse anymore" (snif, snif), since I'd explained it all to him.

If he never nurses again our last breastfeeding session will have been a very meaningful one indeed. Last week he only nursed once every two or three days, but on Saturday we went to visit my grandmother and he had just woken from a nap in the car and was fussy. My grandma (I posted about her here) is very proud of the fact that I practice extended nursing with my sons since she breastfed all her 8 grandchildren (on only one breast, but that's another story) and she suggested that I should nurse him if it helped him calm down, so I did, and it worked. He only took one side (the one with the less milk, and I'm almost dry anyway) and then he wanted a cookie. If this is indeed the last time (if he asks to nurse after we get together again on Wednesday I probably won't resist), I'll treasure it forever since I shared it with my precious grandma.

I'm OK here without them too. It's good to have sometime just for myself since I've spent the past 5 and a half years with them almost 100% of the time (apart from the few days spent at conferences, literaly!!), so I know I should enjoy my freedom while it lasts because next week on Friday we'll be back together. We were a bit afraid that it would be tough for them to be away from mom and dad but I guess that the novelty of being in their grandparents' house, coupled with the fact that my parents have lived for many months with us, are just what they need. And besides daddy has been calling every day from home (thanks to a great VOIP line that allows limitless calls to Brazil), so we don't miss him as much.

We'll survive. But I guess I'll remember this first time forever.

I do miss my precious precious boys.

4 comments:

Keiko said...

ô dureza! Mas é isso, você sobrevive, certeza...

E é claro, enjoy it, na medida do possível

bjinho,
keiko

Unknown said...

Yeah for nursing! I nursed the girls for 2 & 2.5 years respectively. We all just loved it!

Have a great time at the conference.

Aliki2006 said...

Oh, good luck at the conference! And your weaning story made me misty-eyed, as all weaning tales do.

kate said...

Oh, yes, that does sound hard. But it's lucky that they can be at their grandparents. I'm sure the kids will be fine, but you are all in for a happy reunion soon!

Oh, I gave you an award (you can check it out on my blog when you have time.)