I could not resist the title. Just this moment I can see a sweet little bird perched in the juniper tree outside my window. It is a treat. I think he is looking at me. I tried to take a picture but my movement made him fly away.
What I sat down to write about was last night's breakthrough. It was time. For a week or two Miss J has been napping in her toddler bed. I pushed it up to our bed as you see in the picture so that she can be closer and more easily climb into our bed if need be. Also, during the night, I first get her to sleep in her toddler bed. She inevitably wakes sometime, usually before midnight, and climbs into bed with us. Even just an hour or two of reclaiming the bed for ourselves has been lovely. But I still didn't cut off night nursing. I haven't ever had the heart to.
Then Monday night was a rough one. I finally had enough.
So I came up with this plan. Last night in the middle of the night, I let June nurse when she woke first and climbed into bed with us. After that when she awoke and requested boobies, the boobies had gone "night night" and she was out of luck.
Amazingly, surprisingly, she did not protest much and went straight back to sleep. She did wake up really early and wanted to nurse again - around 5:15, but thankfully not every 45 minutes wanting to nurse as she had the night before.
She has become a lot more demanding and with that I feel she has achieved another level of comprehension. It made me feel she was ready for this next step. Heck, if she can tell me to "Move!" in the middle of the night and indicate which boobie she prefers, she is ready to be talked to about letting everyone sleep better.
Soon, I hope, she will no longer need (or desperately want) to nurse to sleep at all.
I'm not cutting off nursing altogether. Just limiting it. And I think it is a nice balance.
P.S. I got the idea from Dr. Sears' article, 12 Alternatives for the All Night Nurser. I had read this article before and tried different techniques, but I think this is a keeper.
Congratulations! That's fabulous! Sometimes you gotta let them know that you are the boss of you, and they don't own the boobies!
ReplyDeleteHooray for more room and more sleep!
yay! congrats! that's good one, "boobies went nitenite" :)
ReplyDeletehooray!
I already told you this, but I loved this post. I love the reasoning with her, and it seems like the fact that you reasons lets her accept things. Really cool, and so cute.
ReplyDeleteI think I need to go and reread that Dr Sears advice.
ReplyDeleteI thought we had worked through a lot of the night time feeding with Mishi, and she was understanding and giving me more space. But we seem to have gone backwards to the constant "mik mik" with that sweet little smile. We tell Mishi she can have it when the sun comes up (coming into Summer that's only going to ge earlier every morning, isn't it!).
Good luck with this. And don't feel guilt about it. You have nourished her with your milk for so long, and weaning isn't a stopping or neglecting, more like a moving to the next phase. It's good for both of you.