The end of a chapter

Its crazy to think that Roman is 2 1/2 years old and that Dominic will be 10 months next week.  Roman seems to have slowed down a bit in growing, even though he did just recently jump from 2T to 3T in clothing size, like overnight.  I put a dress shirt on him the other day and the sleeves stopped way above his wrist and he looked like he was wearing a crop top.  Our little guy is getting bigger all the time too.  I don't realize it until I see him next to a younger baby and I'm like, oh yah, you are bigger than a newborn. He's into size 9month/12month pants and 9 month onsies.  He's not as porky as Roman was at that age but he's very long or I should say tall.  But the point I'm getting to is we are quickly outgrowing our baby phase.  Dominic crawls all over the place, he pulls up to stand and he'll take a few steps holding our hands.  He is lazy though, he'll tend to sit down after a few steps and crawl away.  Like dude, this is too much work just let me crawl.  He's eating all kinds of things even though he only has two teeth.  He doesn't let that stop him.  Even though Roman was/is a big eater I think Dominic is the one who will eat us out of house and home.  He is not picky in the slightest and eats everything. 

Another change, a couple of weeks ago I had to admit that my breastfeeding days are almost done.  I had the 24 hour flu about a month ago, I think.  And it was a doozy, I could not keep anything down.  To just function I took some Theraflu so I could at least try to attend to the kids.  The combination of being extremely dehydrated and taking the Theraflu greatly decreased my milk supply.  Thankfully Dominic has no problems taking a bottle (unlike Roman who refused all bottles and would just wait till I got home from work).  He's always taken bottles while I'm at work, either pumped milk or formula.  After having the flu, though I couldn't pump anything and I wasn't producing enough to keep him satisfied when I was home.  I came to the realization that this is it.  No gradual tapering off at 12/13 months like Roman.  Just done.  I still can feed Dom before bedtime but that's it.  The rest of the time he is on formula.  I know my days are numbered for the bedtime feeding too, I'm just trying to make it till he's 10 months (only 9 more days).  I know some people are like, well at least now you can do whatever without worrying about feeding him or that I'm being silly about it.  But it never bothered me, I always enjoyed our little time together.  I still hold him while he drinks his bottle but its just not the same for me.  I know there are ways to try and increase your milk supply but why prolong the inevitable.  A couple weeks ago, I was nursing him forever and he just kept crying because he was hungry and I had nothing so I had to give him a bottle.  Oh he was so happy and content finally.  I've never had a problem giving him formula.  As long as he likes it, its fine with me.  I read your body goes through this crazy hormonal thing when you stop breastfeeding so it could be my hormones talking and making me emotional.  I didn't experience this when I stopped breastfeeding Roman but he was a little older and I was pregnant with Dominic at the time. 

I realize my little baby is growing up and moving on to the next stage, toddler and I'm just not ready.  And that my toddler is actually a pre-schooler (that's what he's called in my babycenter emails) and I'm like excuse me?  Didn't I just have babies a second ago.  Oh well, such is life.  They can't stay babies forever.  I am just doing my best to try and enjoy each and every stage.  Even though I could really do without Roman's running away from me when we are outside stage or laying on the ground and refusing to move so we have to drag him.  Can we skip that please? 

So to all those breastfeeding mama's out there, enjoy it while you can because before you know it you'll blink and you'll be done.

My little sweet pea