Well, it’s about time for the girls to go out to pasture. By the time all is said and the crying is done, it will have been about 45 months of milk making. I still have some torn feelings about this. There is still a huge part of me that feels weird about The Quail only getting 15 months of breastmilk and Zuzu getting 45. But we had a lot of issues to work through with the Quail and we are still working on those. I’ll talk more later about the Quail’s eating and drinking strides. She’s made some real ones.

My goal was to make it through her surgery and once she was recovered from that I would slowly wean off of the pump and nursing. I’m so incredibly grateful to Zuzu. If she wasn’t such a dedicated comfort nurser I realize I may not have even been able to produce milk for the Quail for 15 months while working full-time. It’s an incredible gift from Zuzu. One neither of them can understand or appreciate now. But I know. And I appreciate it- the increased immunity, cognitive ability, oral-motor strengthening and weight gain while we nursed during the first 9 months. What a gift that liquid gold is. Realizing just how many barriers our sweet Quail had blocking her from thriving- the expectation of  limited growth associated with Down syndrome, the moderate ventricular septal defect and the duodenal stenosis leaving her with a pen tip sized opening to push her food through. The hypotonia and motor planning difficulties making it even more difficult to activate the strength needed to push that food through the opening and nourish her little cherubic body. It’s all a miracle that she has thrived. If life hadn’t happened in exactly the order and on the timeline that it did, many sadder outcomes could have been our reality.

But they weren’t our reality- and we are so blessed. And it’s time to give the girls a rest. Till next time…