We've been busy
A few weeks ago we embarked on project sleep through the night. I don't think the title is too enigmatic. As we've mentioned before, Harvey is crap at sleeping. If he had his druthers he'd wake up every 3 hours for a milkshake. I say milkshake because I'm so generally sleep deprived that my body goes into convulsions at 3 in the morning if I'm woken up by screaming in the middle of my REM. Yeah, it's been bad.
We tried rocking him back to sleep, petting him, cuddling him, and all manners of non-milk soothing for a few nights. It was and wasn't working. He was going back to sleep but he slept fitfully, rolling and crying and back to full-on screaming two hours later. The problem is that the little butter ball is hungry. He can't sleep because he need the calories from milk. But he's not eating enough at dinner time because he expected all the nursings. So project sleep through the night quickly became project ween our clild and then sleep through the night. Like I said, we've been busy.
We cut out all nursings during the day first. That wasn't so hard on him, since he was only getting one bottle when I was at work, but when I get him up from his nap sometimes he remembers how much he used to like to nurse after napping and throws a little tantrum until something else sweet gets into his mouth.
He used to get two feedings in the evening, one when I got home from work and one before bed, and these were really messing up his ability to eat dinner. So we cut out the 5pm nursing and kept the 7:30, which seems to work although sometimes he starts to breakdown and claw at me around 6:30 and I'll give in if he's already eaten dinner.
All this has upped his appetite for solid foods, but it hasn't translated into sleeping success yet. He was doing well skipping his first wake-up for a while and going until 3am, but a few nights of family sickness set us back to a 11pm, 3am, 6am schedule. Dan was sick this weekend and while Harvey and I were sleeping on the mattress downstairs I admit to nursing him twice before the morning. No way was I walking through the cold house to go upstairs to the rocking chair.
So that's where we are now, with a morning and evening nursing and a toddler who'd like to get in two more feedings on the back end. I never had a clear plan for weaning, only that I would nurse him as long as we both wanted to. Well, I think the moment is rapidly approaching. I no longer want to. Not at 3am, anyways.
comments
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I have heard that night weaning does not make a difference in them sleep through the night. I have experienced this myself. Even though my 3 year old night weaned almost a year ago now, he still wakes up in the middle of the night. But now instead of coming in to nurse, he just climbs into bed and cuddles with me. I'm happy about that though because now I have a little bit more control over what position I can sleep in, although not much.
Ugh, that does not make me feel better Theresa, although I've heard that it's true...
Sleeping or not, I'm just not very into nursing him in the wee hours of the morning anymore. I feel like a bad mom for saying it, but I feel kind of ready to be done with the nursing...
Leah, don't feel like a bad mom. Recommendations are that you nurse at least a year and after that as long as both mom and baby want to. If you don't want to anymore that is fine and understandable. I'm in a similar boat - I'm ready to be done but Tristan is not.
Man, if Harvey woke up in just the middle of the night I'd be ecstatic. The problem is when he wakes up in the first quarter, and then the middle, and then the fifth eighth and the eleventh sixteenth...
Dan, you are right, when they are down to just waking once in the night it's not that big of a deal. I hope the sleep gets better.