Weaning works!

Who would have thought? Weaning does work! We spent the week talking about how on Friday (4 more days, 3 more days...) the bosoms would go night-night when it was dark. We got a special night-time cup for water.

The fun started Friday night. Honey went down at 8pm like usual. She woke up at 2 and cried for an hour. We talked about how we don't nurse at night anymore and the bosoms were sleeping. She stood at the door, and I put her back in bed. We rocked and I sang. After about 45 minutes she drank a some milk from her bottle and cried a little longer. After about an hour she fell back asleep in my arms. We snuggled for the rest of the night. When she woke again at 5:30 it was getting light outside so she nursed for while and went back to sleep.

Sat night was better. She sent down and woke at 10:30. She cried for 45 minutes and I carried her around the house, just doing laps and singing. She went back to sleep and we got back in bed. At 2:30 she woke again, drank some milk from her bottle and went back to sleep. No tears, no trying to nurse, only about 7-10 minutes of wakefulness.

Sunday night was amazing. She went to sleep at the usual time (8pm). And woke at 3:45. She has NEVER slept that long on her own. I was in my bed, she was in hers. When she woke up, I went in to her room. She drank some milk from her bottle and went right back to sleep. I stayed with her until about 5:30. She woke at 7 for the morning.

I'm afraid to be too excited. I don't want to jinx myself. But I'm so happy that it seems to be working. The fact that she has so much language really helps. There were tears, but i was there the whole, reassuring her that even though we are not nursing, we can still cuddle at night and I'm still there for her.

We'll see how tonight goes. If everything continues to go so smoothly, I'll transition her to a bottle of water, rather than milk. I'd like to have something that can stay in her bed, so we don't have to mike a midnight fridge stop.

What I don't want is for her to feel abandoned. This has been a big part of our relationship, but it is time for change. My little baby, getting so much bigger.

Next up- work updates.

Weaning plan

So it is time to wean Honey. My plan was to be done by her 2nd birthday. that time is almost there and i need to get my head straight about how to go about this.

Step 1:
Don't offer, don't refuse. We'll start this today. I'm not really sure how much she asks to nurse and how much I offer it up. this will help me figure it out.
Step 2:
No more in-public nursing. This one isn't such a big deal. I've mostly stopped doing this anyway.
Step 3:
Start the discussion about no more at night in prep for the weekend. This weekend (Friday) we'll start with the no more after the sun goes down. Need to get my language down for that one. I'd like to be consistent with what I say every night.

For the next week I'll try these steps out and see where that gets us.

Anger Sharks part 2

Oh my. It has been a long time. And the anger sharks have gotten worse. And I haven't run and I haven't written and my reading has fallen off. What has happened to me?

We did go on a vacation with Lion's family. It was wonderful, if not particularly restful. But I'm back at the grind again. The hospital has hired a new person for the full time position. She starts next week. Not soon enough!

Honey is going through some kind of crazy developmental thing. She is unbelievably active and so so funny. But she has stopped sleeping. It takes her forever to go down at night, and then she is up for hours in the middle of the night.

Plan of attack:
1. Schedule appt with crazy dr.
2. Back to running. I'll take Honey to the gym tonight.
3. Write 250 words every day. I like a tangible number. Reading is good, but it isn't helping me move forward.
4. create a plan for weaning. I'm feeling done, and I'm about dried up. But Honey still depends on it for comfort. I need to implement new techniques.

Goals for March:
1. 10 pages of lit review
2. plan for experimental pilot data collection, with completed stim gen routine and playout routine
3. get back in to exercise habit
4. No more drinking. It helps calm me down and I don't want to use it as a crutch.