Lola’s been waking up 1-3 times during the night to nurse (“num num”) back to sleep. It’s starting to take a real toll on me, I’m dragging thru the day and I figured she is old enough to night wean. I still plan to nurse her before bed for a while, and gently wean her altogether.
Well – Sarah was easier than I thought to night-wean and we weaned her much more easily than I thought she would. It used to be her comfort, for hurt feelings, bumps and bruises, etc. Nursing was like a reset button when she was a toddler.
Now Lola is not comforted by the num, she won’t nurse and feel better like Sarah did. BUT she wants what she wants. Late last week, after waking up multiple times to nurse and not being able to fall asleep (me), I said nums went nigh nigh - and the first night she fell back to sleep sort of easily, but I kept having to walk around with her to lull her back to sleep. We’d lay down, she’d wake up, I would get up and get her back to sleep. That was really night #1, which was deceptively easily. The next day, I felt like I was going to fall asleep driving the girls to school – scary.
The next night, she pitched a fit and it was so exhausting that I gave in after an hour or so and just rocked/nursed her back to sleep. After a week of little sleep, it was easier just to give in.
She didn’t feel well this weekend, was really clingy & irritable, so I backed off. But I’m exhausted… I looked up some different ideas for night weaning on the web this morning and decided on a little action plan. So I decided between 11pm and 5 am is a no num num time, I’m going to try this for 10 days and see if it gets better – the idea is that she will stop nursing in the middle of the night.
I was up with my little one since 2:20 and finally sometime after 4:30 she fell asleep again, I didn’t dare move even though I was cold and uncomfortable on the floor next to her little crib mattress. I’m considering this as a success, I didn’t give in and although I was crying myself at 4am, we made it through this rough spot and I’m looking forward to her waking up and being able to do a good morning nursing session with her.
