Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Night Weaning, Part 2

Sorry that this is probably really boring for other people reading it, but I've got to record it as part of my Little Chub journal.

So, night 2 (Monday night), Little Chub only cried for about 10 minutes before falling asleep, which was half as long as the night before. Yay! Unfortunately, she woke up about five times during the night, so Peter was POOPED on Tuesday from going back and forth so much. Monday, I planned the day so that she would fall asleep in the car, but Tuesday, I had to try to get her down for her nap, without nursing, and I was hoping to do it before 1pm, so I could go for my swim while she was napping (which is how Peter and I have worked out our schedules). The bedroom was too light, though, so 30 minutes later, she was still awake. Lucky for me, Peter was fine with watching her instead of working on homework, so I managed to go for a slightly abbreviated swim (only shortened by about 10 minutes though...). While I was gone, he tried to put her down for a nap, too, to no avail, so when I got home I put two blankets over the windows and made our bedroom as dark as night, and she went down really easily. Yay!

Then, last night, night 3, she only took 6 minutes to fall asleep. Even better! And she slept without us needing to do anything until about 8am. I should add that she's been going to bed around 11pm recently, but we'll be putting her to bed earlier tonight. She was super tired the last two nights when we finally put her to bed. Last night, we put her to sleep in our bed, and we slept in our pull-out couch bed, and she still managed to fall off the bed. We'll eventually move her twin bed into her own room and we'll be getting a bed rail for it so she doesn't fall off.

Today for her nap, she fell asleep within ten minutes with pretty much no crying, just with me cuddling her as she tried to get to sleep. It worked perfectly for me to go for my swim. Three successful nights in a row. The sad thing is that the last time she nursed was on Monday evening. I think we're pretty much done with breastfeeding now. Only 14 1/2 months of nursing for my little baby!

1 comment:

Real said...

It can be almost traumatic to end that sweet breastfeeding relationship, can't it. It's the end of something really beautiful that has existed for little Chub's entire life. You will miss it. But from the moment she was born, it was always in the cards.

But you can also rejoice in sleeping through the night, that your body will now be able to rest more and build up reserves for the last half of your pregnancy, and enjoy all the great big girl things that little chub can do now!

In Hebrew culture, they used to have a big feast and celebration when a child was weaned because that meant the child passed from their mother's care to their father's care.

And soon enough you will be breastfeeding another little one!!