If you're reading this in order, you knew this night was coming. The night when mommy had to do the night weaning alone.
< enter screaming mama, pulling out hair photo here! >
No really, I would be all good with this if we weren't fighting a cold. But having cyclically night weaned my now 4 year old for 2 years due to colds and inability to be consistent (I swear, when ever I whisper night wean, my daughter came down with a cold, maybe there's a pattern here.)
If you're just joining us, start at night one of gently night weaning our toddler.
Night nursing a baby is a part of being a 24 hour parent to me. I really don't feel comfortable with sleep trainers who believe that children and especially babies do not need their moms. In fact, I saw an ad on craigslist recently where a mom claimed "we're not too scheduled but we follow babywise" - um, yeah, hopefully they find a gentle nanny or au pair who can turn that family's tide...
Anyway, can you tell I'm avoiding the topic? Yes, night 11 and I'm to night wean a 2 year old with a cold and keep my 4 year old from waking when the 2 year old wakes at night.
So this evening started out well when my 4 year old said she wanted to sleep alone. WHAT? I didn't even ask that, she just declared she was ready. Okay, we'll go with that one!
Since my 2 year old was having a cold and some congestion, we have the humidifier going. Not sure if I mentioned this earlier, but the humidifier appears to be helpful. I wasn't sure if that would necessarily be enough so I pulled out the basket of homeopathic medicines and decided on Cina, since it is for restless sleep AND colds.
What started out as my 2 year old wanting me to read books upon books and my 4 year old falling asleep after her i-spy search of a book.... 2 year old finally agreed to nurse to sleep - he often likes to nurse to almost asleep then pop awake, re-energized. What, calories in breastmilk may give energy to a toddler you want to sleep? I did not KNOW this going in!
Anyway, once he agreed to try to sleep, I reminded him that "we sleep when the sun sleeps" and that he could have good morning dudh when he saw the sun again. By the way, black out curtains are great for keeping kids asleep a bit longer in the morning.
He finally fell asleep with nursing and decided it was time to do the death grip to my tank top to prevent me from leaving. I tried to remember to enjoy these cuddles and he finally was in a deep sleep, so I slipped out of the room and finished up some blogging and dishes.
I found my way to bed, remembered the humidifier had been on for a while, refilled it, and found the comfort of my pillow.
I was sleeping soundly until my son started coughing around 4 am. I patted him, and instinctively, whipped out the boob... but he just rolled over and went to sleep. WHAT? Did he just refuse night nursing?
Could we actually be night weaned?
I think we may have done it! Now, to get me back to being able to fully sleep.
But knock on wood... night 12 is still to come!
< enter screaming mama, pulling out hair photo here! >
No really, I would be all good with this if we weren't fighting a cold. But having cyclically night weaned my now 4 year old for 2 years due to colds and inability to be consistent (I swear, when ever I whisper night wean, my daughter came down with a cold, maybe there's a pattern here.)
If you're just joining us, start at night one of gently night weaning our toddler.
Night nursing a baby is a part of being a 24 hour parent to me. I really don't feel comfortable with sleep trainers who believe that children and especially babies do not need their moms. In fact, I saw an ad on craigslist recently where a mom claimed "we're not too scheduled but we follow babywise" - um, yeah, hopefully they find a gentle nanny or au pair who can turn that family's tide...
Anyway, can you tell I'm avoiding the topic? Yes, night 11 and I'm to night wean a 2 year old with a cold and keep my 4 year old from waking when the 2 year old wakes at night.
So this evening started out well when my 4 year old said she wanted to sleep alone. WHAT? I didn't even ask that, she just declared she was ready. Okay, we'll go with that one!
Since my 2 year old was having a cold and some congestion, we have the humidifier going. Not sure if I mentioned this earlier, but the humidifier appears to be helpful. I wasn't sure if that would necessarily be enough so I pulled out the basket of homeopathic medicines and decided on Cina, since it is for restless sleep AND colds.
What started out as my 2 year old wanting me to read books upon books and my 4 year old falling asleep after her i-spy search of a book.... 2 year old finally agreed to nurse to sleep - he often likes to nurse to almost asleep then pop awake, re-energized. What, calories in breastmilk may give energy to a toddler you want to sleep? I did not KNOW this going in!
Anyway, once he agreed to try to sleep, I reminded him that "we sleep when the sun sleeps" and that he could have good morning dudh when he saw the sun again. By the way, black out curtains are great for keeping kids asleep a bit longer in the morning.
He finally fell asleep with nursing and decided it was time to do the death grip to my tank top to prevent me from leaving. I tried to remember to enjoy these cuddles and he finally was in a deep sleep, so I slipped out of the room and finished up some blogging and dishes.
I found my way to bed, remembered the humidifier had been on for a while, refilled it, and found the comfort of my pillow.
I was sleeping soundly until my son started coughing around 4 am. I patted him, and instinctively, whipped out the boob... but he just rolled over and went to sleep. WHAT? Did he just refuse night nursing?
Could we actually be night weaned?
I think we may have done it! Now, to get me back to being able to fully sleep.
But knock on wood... night 12 is still to come!
1 comment:
Wow, two nights in a row?!?!? NICE!
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