Well, I've finally had it. The multiple night time feedings need to come to an end. Bryleigh is only a few days short of being 22 months old and she has been getting up 2-3 times per night, on average. She's after comfort nursing. She doesn't need the milk because she is hungry.
I don't need or want to give up nursing completely, just the night time feedings. I really feel like she will quit waking me up so much once she realizes she won't be getting milk.
This is a whole new thing for me. Brennan completely weaned himself at about 13 months old with no prodding from me in the least. I was shocked and almost not even ready to quit with him yet! Bryleigh is so different. She is nowhere near ready to quit. She loves the comfort.
So last night was the first night of night weaning. We went cold turkey. She woke up at a little after midnight, and came strolling into our room as normal. I took her back to her room and she immediately asked for milk. I reminded her again that she couldn't have any milk until morning, until her Minnie light came on. I told her that we all need sleep and that she can have milk again in the day time. Needless to say, she was quite forlorn. She went through a range of emotions, mad, sad, frustrated, etc... I just cuddled and patted her, assuring her that I was there, staying with her. In stubborn Anderson fashion, she carried on for an impressive 21 lullaby songs... about an hour and 20 minutes before finally drifting off to sleep.
And then the shocker... she didn't wake me up again until 5:45. It has become kind of rare to get that long of a stretch of sleep at that time of night/morning. Maybe she realized that I wasn't fooling and that she was not getting any milk until morning? Maybe that's wishful thinking... Anyway, I consider that close enough to morning to feed her, so we went back into her room, turned on her Minnie light to signal morning time, and had a nice morning feed. She was so content and sweet.
Hoping night 2 goes as smoothly, or even smoother than night 1! I really believe this is one of those things that will stink for a week or two, and then I'll be kicking myself for not having done it months ago. Let's hope so!
I don't need or want to give up nursing completely, just the night time feedings. I really feel like she will quit waking me up so much once she realizes she won't be getting milk.
This is a whole new thing for me. Brennan completely weaned himself at about 13 months old with no prodding from me in the least. I was shocked and almost not even ready to quit with him yet! Bryleigh is so different. She is nowhere near ready to quit. She loves the comfort.
So last night was the first night of night weaning. We went cold turkey. She woke up at a little after midnight, and came strolling into our room as normal. I took her back to her room and she immediately asked for milk. I reminded her again that she couldn't have any milk until morning, until her Minnie light came on. I told her that we all need sleep and that she can have milk again in the day time. Needless to say, she was quite forlorn. She went through a range of emotions, mad, sad, frustrated, etc... I just cuddled and patted her, assuring her that I was there, staying with her. In stubborn Anderson fashion, she carried on for an impressive 21 lullaby songs... about an hour and 20 minutes before finally drifting off to sleep.
And then the shocker... she didn't wake me up again until 5:45. It has become kind of rare to get that long of a stretch of sleep at that time of night/morning. Maybe she realized that I wasn't fooling and that she was not getting any milk until morning? Maybe that's wishful thinking... Anyway, I consider that close enough to morning to feed her, so we went back into her room, turned on her Minnie light to signal morning time, and had a nice morning feed. She was so content and sweet.
Hoping night 2 goes as smoothly, or even smoother than night 1! I really believe this is one of those things that will stink for a week or two, and then I'll be kicking myself for not having done it months ago. Let's hope so!
No comments:
Post a Comment
I LOVE comments! I hope you'll leave one for me! Have a great day!