Enjoy Both

I’ve been thinking about lasts a lot lately. Like when Allie nursed for the last time, took a bottle for the last time. The last night it was just my hubby and I in our home. The last morning we got to sleep in past 7:30. And wondering what other lasts we will all be experiencing as life continues to move forward. 

Right after Allie was born my sister gave me a children’s book that was all about lasts and the underlying message was to treasure the lasts as much as you treasure the firsts. Many of us will always remember the first time we held our babies and the first time we saw them smile. But do we give the same care and intention to remember the last time our toddler wobbles over to us to be held, the last time we will rock our baby to sleep? 

Even thinking about all the lasts I will get to experience had me bawling. I can safely say that I have yet to finish reading that book my sister gave me over a year ago. I have only gotten two thirds of the way through it before my tears blurred my vision. It is so easy to get lost in the business and craziness of day to day life, especially with kiddos that we may miss those last moments. Moments that we would want to cherish as much at their end as we did at their beginning. Reading what little I have of this book has made me more intentional with Allie’s lasts. Not all of them, but just an awareness when a behavior changes or a favorite pastime is no longer the favorite. 

For example I remember when Allie stopped nursing, I cried because the last time we had nursed she just screamed and screamed. It wasn’t the bonding, special one on one time that it had been up to that point. My poor girl had so many teeth coming in at once that it just hurt her mouth to nurse. She could take a bottle no problem but straight from the source not so much. So I continued to pump for her and I’ll never forget a few weeks into pumping, that I got to have a redo on her last time nursing with me. It was around Allie’s nap and she was snuggling me so I decided to try and nurse her again to have a better end to that chapter and to my joy she latched and ate without any discomfort. Mainly because she fell asleep within minutes of latching on. I took out my phone and took a picture of Allie laying on the nursing pillow next me, peacefully asleep to mark the last time she nursed and then bawled again. Which I am sure is not a shock to any of you at this point in these posts, I cry at the drop of the hat. That’s just me

Now I am not saying to put pressure or take a picture of all the lasts you want to capture in your child’s or children’s lives. I have one baby and I get to stay home with her, so that is how I chose to capture those moments. I am just wanting to share the intention around lasts that I got when I was given the book. Our firsts and our lasts are all big mile markers within any life, not just our baby’s. It’s okay to pause and enjoy all the firsts and the lasts.