(no subject)
I want to wean Shai. He mostly only nurses at night and for nap when he's home with me, unless he can con me into nursing him at another time by claiming he wants to go to sleep, then nursing for 10 minutes and popping up and declaring, "Mo noo!" ("no nurse") and climbing off his bed and wandering away.
The thing is, he still nurses two to four times per night, and I'm going positively batty. Also, we'd like to have another baby, and I haven't had much luck conceiving yet (5 cycles come and gone so far), and I'm wondering if the nursing has anything to do with the delay.
Two nights ago, I told him we would nurse while we did the Shema (as we usually do), and then I was going to count to 30, and he'd have to stop (rather than letting him nurse until he decided he was done). Amazingly, when I got to 30, he popped off, said "night, night Mommy" and went to sleep. Last night same. Tonight same. So that's something. But he wakes up anywhere from 11:00 to 1:00, then between 4:00 and 5:00, and sometimes additional times. And he INSISTS on nursing. He doesn't scream and cry. He just repeats "Noo. Noo. Noo. Noo. Noo." Constantly. Until I give in just to make him shut up. He's smart.
I had three blissful nights a few weeks back where his first awakening was 4:30, but that ended with a bang. Sigh. He'll be 2 next Friday. (Holy CRAP, his SECOND BIRTHDAY is next Friday? Where did my baby go?!) So I can say I nursed until he was 2. I did my duty. I'm so done with this.
I have no idea how to do it, though. The weaning is really night weaning, which is doubly hard because I can't just distract him with food. Although food is an issue, of course. He doesn't eat well. I'm wondering if it's because he still nurses quite a bit, that he doesn't feel the need to eat. He gets protein maybe once a week and otherwise subsists mostly on snack foods, crackers, cookies, cereal, and raisins and oranges and the occasional banana. But tonight he ate FOUR toddler-sized helpings of pasta. FOUR. So either he REALLY liked the pasta or he was especially hungry, or maybe it's finally sinking in that he needs to F-ing EAT DURING THE DAY. Sheesh. We'll see how he does tonight. I still don't know if he wakes to nurse SOLELY out of habit or if he's honestly hungry. Because it's fairly irregular, I tend to think he asks to nurse when he really is hungry, but I don't know. I'm not going to give him crackers in the middle of the night!
Well, okay, I know how to do it. I just send Daddy in when he wakes. No boob, no nurse. But he'll just sit there and cry piteously for me, and in the middle of the night, I just don't have the strength for it. Sigh.
Baby steps, then. First, get him to go to sleep without nursing at all. The counting to 30 thing seems to work well, so maybe I start counting sooner in the process, then start counting less, until he realizes he just doesn't need it. When he's with his baby-sitter three days a week, he naps for her without nursing (obviously). Well, she holds him until he falls asleep, which may be causing all sorts of other problems, but the point is, he falls asleep without nursing, which is my goal right now.
I was just reading back through my archive and found a post from when I was pregnant with Shai saying that I didn't care if we ended up with a kid who couldn't sleep without nursing. Wish fulfillment, much? I kind of wish I had nipped this in the bud a LITTLE sooner. I'm so TIRED. TWO YEARS, with maybe a weeks' total worth of good nights' sleep. Ouch.
I had a nightmare the other night. It was remarkable for two reasons. One, I hadn't had a nightmare in quite a while, and Two, it wasn't my usual type of anxiety dream. I don't want to talk about it more. Suffice it to say that I had trouble shaking it, and I was glad when Shai woke me up. Only, when I went back to sleep, the dream continued! Anyway. Just a dream.
On an entirely unrelated note, I baked two loaves of bread this evening. Just on a whim. We don't have any, and finding kosher bread is fairly difficult. So I baked some. Hey, you gotta have bread in the house, you know? I mean, I make challah often enough. That's bread. I want to make other kinds of bread, though. I do it by hand. I don't have a bread maker.
Oh, yeah, we're on a path to a kosher kitchen. We now only buy hekshered (marked-as-kosher) food. You have to be selective! Whole categories of foods we're used to are ruled out, like Goldfish crackers (a former family staple). Fortunately, quite a lot of our usual foods are kosher anyway, so it hasn't been such a huge transition.
Shai likes to play this jigsaw puzzle game on my iPod. He sits there doing puzzle after puzzle. This kid is incredible. Just amazing. So smart. So focused. It's a little scary! (In a good way!)
I'm going to L.A. tomorrow for a client's holiday luncheon. The first time I've gotten to go. I'm excited. I should really go to bed. Lots of driving to do tomorrow!
By the way, did I mention that Shai turns TWO next Friday? Wow.
I've been preaching VBAC all over the place lately! People keep asking me about it. It's neat.
Alright, I think I'm done here. Long post. Bed time.
The thing is, he still nurses two to four times per night, and I'm going positively batty. Also, we'd like to have another baby, and I haven't had much luck conceiving yet (5 cycles come and gone so far), and I'm wondering if the nursing has anything to do with the delay.
Two nights ago, I told him we would nurse while we did the Shema (as we usually do), and then I was going to count to 30, and he'd have to stop (rather than letting him nurse until he decided he was done). Amazingly, when I got to 30, he popped off, said "night, night Mommy" and went to sleep. Last night same. Tonight same. So that's something. But he wakes up anywhere from 11:00 to 1:00, then between 4:00 and 5:00, and sometimes additional times. And he INSISTS on nursing. He doesn't scream and cry. He just repeats "Noo. Noo. Noo. Noo. Noo." Constantly. Until I give in just to make him shut up. He's smart.
I had three blissful nights a few weeks back where his first awakening was 4:30, but that ended with a bang. Sigh. He'll be 2 next Friday. (Holy CRAP, his SECOND BIRTHDAY is next Friday? Where did my baby go?!) So I can say I nursed until he was 2. I did my duty. I'm so done with this.
I have no idea how to do it, though. The weaning is really night weaning, which is doubly hard because I can't just distract him with food. Although food is an issue, of course. He doesn't eat well. I'm wondering if it's because he still nurses quite a bit, that he doesn't feel the need to eat. He gets protein maybe once a week and otherwise subsists mostly on snack foods, crackers, cookies, cereal, and raisins and oranges and the occasional banana. But tonight he ate FOUR toddler-sized helpings of pasta. FOUR. So either he REALLY liked the pasta or he was especially hungry, or maybe it's finally sinking in that he needs to F-ing EAT DURING THE DAY. Sheesh. We'll see how he does tonight. I still don't know if he wakes to nurse SOLELY out of habit or if he's honestly hungry. Because it's fairly irregular, I tend to think he asks to nurse when he really is hungry, but I don't know. I'm not going to give him crackers in the middle of the night!
Well, okay, I know how to do it. I just send Daddy in when he wakes. No boob, no nurse. But he'll just sit there and cry piteously for me, and in the middle of the night, I just don't have the strength for it. Sigh.
Baby steps, then. First, get him to go to sleep without nursing at all. The counting to 30 thing seems to work well, so maybe I start counting sooner in the process, then start counting less, until he realizes he just doesn't need it. When he's with his baby-sitter three days a week, he naps for her without nursing (obviously). Well, she holds him until he falls asleep, which may be causing all sorts of other problems, but the point is, he falls asleep without nursing, which is my goal right now.
I was just reading back through my archive and found a post from when I was pregnant with Shai saying that I didn't care if we ended up with a kid who couldn't sleep without nursing. Wish fulfillment, much? I kind of wish I had nipped this in the bud a LITTLE sooner. I'm so TIRED. TWO YEARS, with maybe a weeks' total worth of good nights' sleep. Ouch.
I had a nightmare the other night. It was remarkable for two reasons. One, I hadn't had a nightmare in quite a while, and Two, it wasn't my usual type of anxiety dream. I don't want to talk about it more. Suffice it to say that I had trouble shaking it, and I was glad when Shai woke me up. Only, when I went back to sleep, the dream continued! Anyway. Just a dream.
On an entirely unrelated note, I baked two loaves of bread this evening. Just on a whim. We don't have any, and finding kosher bread is fairly difficult. So I baked some. Hey, you gotta have bread in the house, you know? I mean, I make challah often enough. That's bread. I want to make other kinds of bread, though. I do it by hand. I don't have a bread maker.
Oh, yeah, we're on a path to a kosher kitchen. We now only buy hekshered (marked-as-kosher) food. You have to be selective! Whole categories of foods we're used to are ruled out, like Goldfish crackers (a former family staple). Fortunately, quite a lot of our usual foods are kosher anyway, so it hasn't been such a huge transition.
Shai likes to play this jigsaw puzzle game on my iPod. He sits there doing puzzle after puzzle. This kid is incredible. Just amazing. So smart. So focused. It's a little scary! (In a good way!)
I'm going to L.A. tomorrow for a client's holiday luncheon. The first time I've gotten to go. I'm excited. I should really go to bed. Lots of driving to do tomorrow!
By the way, did I mention that Shai turns TWO next Friday? Wow.
I've been preaching VBAC all over the place lately! People keep asking me about it. It's neat.
Alright, I think I'm done here. Long post. Bed time.