For Mother’s Day this year, I respectfully told Chris that I didn’t want a gift. We’ve taken a couple trips lately and I really didn’t want anything and the last thing I need is more stuff. Chris knows me well: I’d rather have an experience than a thing, so the little vacations we took as a family were the perfect gift.

But, that didn’t stop me from giving myself a little something. This year, as I approached a combined 56+ months of breastfeeding, I gave myself a custom necklace to honor this special time in my life. After reading about breast milk jewelry in a Facebook group I belong to, I took some time to research the concept. Lucky for me, I found Hollyday Designs. I reached out to Holly and after a few emails back-and-forth I shipped a couple ounces of my breast milk to her studio. Six weeks later, this arrived:

The necklace I designed and Holly created is subtle and simple. Four small breast milk beads – one for each of my babies – on a thin gold chain. Unless you read this post, you’d never know the “pearls” were made with my breast milk.

I know to some people this concept might sound crazy or gross or totally weird, but breastfeeding has been a special time in my life and I wanted to honor and remember it in a special way. This necklace ties me to my children – who are growing so fast! – and gently reminds me of times when they were so small and I was so new to this whole motherhood thing.

Check out Hollyday Designs here: http://www.hollydaydesigns.com/milk-jewelry/