Katie's upper teeth?

As of, well, right now, Katie only has her two bottom teeth. But, when she's laughing (or crying, for that matter) on the changing table, I think I've spotted her two top teeth coming in. It looks like the ridges on her two bottom teeth, so we'll see.

I would say she's not fussier than usual, but that's not true. She's learning how to assert what she really wants to be doing, and that's one of three things: playing, crawling, or "walking." When she was born and I was learning how to breastfeed, we would finger-feed her formula. Those first few weeks, she would let out this adorable squeal (adorable only to me, I'm sure) whenever she wasn't getting enough to eat. I think that squeal may have stemmed from the immediate gratification of being finger-fed versus nursing, but we haven't heard it for awhile...until recently. Now, she'll squeal with impatience when I'm holding her on my lap for too long, for instance, instead of lending her my fingers to walk.

I'm wondering, though, if these top two teeth will put an end to breastfeeding. The bottom two didn't hurt, me or her. I guess the thing is, I haven't been breastfeeding too much this semester. Over Christmas break, I was trying to re-dedicate myself to nursing. An erratic schedule had depleted my supply, and I thought I was back on top of it over break. When she got dehydrated that last week before school started back up after largely rejecting the bottle, I decided it was time to quit nursing in order to monitor her fluid intake.

Emotionally, neither Katie nor I were ready for it. When I would go to bed, and she would wake back up, Eric would have to bring her to me in bed to nurse her back to sleep. And I realized it would be economically stupid: I would be home with her so much, feeding her formula just wouldn't make sense. And then, we put her in day care full-time through March and April. To alleviate some of the guilt, I started pumping more regularly so that she largely drinks breastmilk through the day. When we get home at night, it's her dinner of solids, and then a bottle before bed. So in reality, I nurse first thing in the morning, and that's about it.

I don't know when I'll wean her off the breast for good. If and when I have to have my thyroid scan this summer or fall, it will definitely have to be then. But if the doctor gives me the all-clear, I may nurse well past her first birthday. That is, of course, unless these two top teeth change all that.