Nursing anniversary

As Elise's 1 year birthday approaches, so does our 1 year anniversary of our nursing relationship, or at least, anniversary of trying to nurse since it took a few months to get it established.  As I reflect back on this year, I think I experienced a true God-given miracle with breastfeeding.  I won't hash out all the details again, but in short, I had every card stacked against me and I even had two lactation consultants basically tell me to switch to formula.  Elise would not latch or stay latched and I had very little milk.  But somehow we prevailed and, with the help of some medication and prayer, we were able to nurse effortlessly after about 3 months.

Sometimes when I think about her newborn days, I feel a sting of sadness because I feel like I was so consumed with breastfeeding that I feel like I couldn't really relish those early days.  Everyday, I was pumping like crazy, driving to all sorts of different clinics and appointments, reading everything I could online, reading several books, etc.  I was basically obsessed. 

But in the grand scheme of things, I guess it was worth it because nursing has been one of the highlights of motherhood for me.  Elise absolutely loves it.  Right now, I mostly nurse her before naps and bedtime, and so I side-lie nurse her.  She knows it is coming when I take her into our bedroom and she immediately starts giggling and hyperventilating in excitement.  It's so cute!  When she latches, she pounces on me and nurses while smiling for the first few seconds.  Sometimes we make eye contact and giggle together.

I always assumed I would nurse for a year and then switch to cow's milk.  But seeing now how much Elise adores nursing, I don't think I can stop this.  The World Health Organization recommends nursing for at least two years!  I don't think I'll go longer than 2 years, but I definitely have enough energy to go at least another 6 months for bedtime and morning.  I'm going to wean daytime feeds, however, because I want to stop pumping.  Breastmilk still provides a lot of immunological benefits that other milks do not provide.  That, and since Elise is allergic to dairy, all the alternative milks I've looked into have some sort of drawback, be it hormones, carrageenan, or lacking crucial vitamins.