Night Weaning, Night Four:

Stock photo by dynamite imagery.

I put our sweet Baboo to bed at 7:30, nursing him to sleep as usual. When we got to the bedroom he climbed out of the bed and ran out of the room, and I thought "Oh, no, he's into the habit of running for the living room as soon as he gets to bed now." To my surprise and delight, he grabbed his baby doll and then came back to bed with a big smile. Looks like someone has found his lovey. He held his baby while I nursed him to sleep, and then I crept out as usual.

He woke for the first time at around midnight. He didn't ask to nurse. Surprise! Yay! Success! He snuggled up to me, got comfy, and then drifted off. He had a few wakings like this throughout the night, and didn't ask the nurse even once. I am thrilled. At around 4 am, he did ask to "Go." I had to physically pull him back into bed a few times, because I was NOT going to condone any more middle of the night trekks to the living room. Eventually he managed to wrangle his way out of my arms and over to the door. Thankfully, he just pushed it open, and then got back into bed. If he is more comfortable with the door open, that is absolutely no problem for me. He grabbed his baby and the drifted off to sleep, a state in which he stayed until 7:30 am. Woohoo! Of course he was allowed to nurse for as long as he wanted this morning, which he did for a full half hour.

Hopefully tonight goes even better, if that's possible. So far this experience hasn't been nearly as bad as I had thought it would be.

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Night Weaning, Night Three:

I'm not exactly sure how to sum up night three. I was so tired that I don't think I have exact time frames for what happened and when. I put him to sleep as usual, and he was fine. 3 and a half hours later he woke up and wanted to nurse. I told him that it was time to sleep, and he could have milk in the morning. He cried, but this time only for five minutes. I thought, score! But two minutes later he was up again, asking for milk. I had stupidly forgotten to refill his sippy with water, so I ventured out to the kitchen to do so. He toddled out after me, and then didn't want to go back to bed. My bad.

The Hubbs played with him for a bit until he got worn out, and then brought him back to bed with me. I handed him his baby doll and told him it was time for him and baby to go to sleep. He settled right in without fussing and went to sleep. He was up every hour and a half after that. Sometimes he squawked, sometimes he just got comfortable and went back to sleep, but he didn't cry.

Sadly, he didn't sleep in the next morning either. He was up at 6. I was not happy. The Hubbs had an 8 am class so he was out the door, and I was home with a cranky tired baby. Ugh. Night three is supposed to be some kind of breakthrough, so I was pretty worried that we had just replaced the habit of nursing back to sleep all night with the habit of getting up to play in the living room.

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Turn Your Face Into The Sun

To My Sweet Baboo,
In honour of your first night falling asleep all by yourself.
Mama put you in your pack n play bassinet in mom and dad's room, swaddled all cozy, and turned on your Seahorse. I sat down on the floor where you could see me, and your eyes went back and forth from the light, to my face. You listened to the tinkly music, watched the glow, and I was expecting that when the 5 minutes were up you would cry and I would bring you to bed with me. Only you didn't--your eyes got heavy, and then you let them close and you fell asleep. Mama was so proud of you! You slept on your own for almost four hours.

What I want to talk to you about, though, is the light. I have noticed that you love it. We used to have a night light in our bedroom to make it easier for us to see you when you woke up at night. We had to get rid of it because instead of going back to sleep, you would twist your body until you could see it, and then just stare at it for ages.

In the wee hours of the morning, when the light starts shining through the windows, you turn away from me and turn to face the sun.

At night, if we are watching TV and you are sleeping beside us and wake up, your eye immediately goes towards the glow of the tube, and we turn it off until you're asleep again.

If there's a light around, you'll find it. And I want to encourage you to live your life that way.

Don't focus on the bad, the dark, the shadows in this world. Listen to the music (even if you have to make your own!), and look towards the light. Be guided by the glow. Turn towards the sun.

Love, Mama

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Driven to Drink

Trying to get this kid to sleep is driving me to drink. Unfortunately, my breast milk makes it impossible for me to do any real damage.

That is all.

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