I'm not sure this post is titled accurately. We are making progress..... but very very slowly. My original plan was to try a little cry-it-out and hope that he would just go back to sleep because "he isn't hungry, he's just nursing for comfort at night". A friend sent me an article that said just because he doesn't need it anymore, he is used to it, and it seems cruel to stop cold turkey. I definitely agree and so I have decided that over the next few weeks to slowly decreasing the length of time by a minute or two. Because he only nurses in the middle of the night now (we're not even doing in the morning anymore), I just nurse him until he falls asleep. Now that I'm am stopping a few minutes short of that, this process of weaning is going to require a little crying.
Our first two nights have been pretty much the same. I have fed him twice both nights around 11:30 and 4:00. Once I hear him wake up I don't go in unless he actually starts to yell or cry. Once in a while he just makes a few noises and does go back to sleep. I nurse him and stop just a few minutes earlier than I normally would. This is hard because in my sleepy state of mind, I'm not completely alert and sure of how much time has passed. It's not super consistent, but I'm just kind of guessing how long before I lay him back down. Once we stop, he definitely protests. I lay him in his crib and give him ten minutes before I go back in. Both times the first night, and once the second night, I had to go back in and try to sooth him without nursing. The first two times he was pretty mad and frustrated that I wouldn't just feed him. The third time I had to go back in he just let him cuddle and hold him for a few minutes until he fell asleep. The fourth time he fussed for about 5 minutes and then went to sleep on his own and I didn't have to go back in. Baby steps....
I'm going to cut the time shorter every 2-3 nights. After a couple weeks when we are down to only 1 or 2 minutes, then I will cut it out all together and keep a sippy cup of water by his crib. I know there will be a little bit of tears, but at least by then I will know that his body is used to not getting very much milk.
I have been talking about night weaning for several weeks now, but in the middle of the night I just didn't have the gumption to follow through. Now that I have committed (mostly thanks to his new two top teeth), it isn't that bad. Each time he wakes up, the process is taking about 25 minutes before I get to go back to sleep, verses the 5-10 minutes from before. I just make sure I'm in bed at a decent hour and I feel just fine. Plus, once we are officially done, I'm going to eat the biggest bowl of ice cream! I have an entire summer to make up for.
0 comments:
Post a Comment