Report on Night 1 of Operation Night Weaning (and other things M related)

It went surprisingly well.  I think I was up with M 3 times.  Each time I leaned down to hug him, snuggle a bit.  And then I laid him down saying, "Night, night."  I kept my hand on his back a few minutes until he settled.  There were no massive screaming fits because I never picked him up.

He slept around 3 hours between each waking until the 3:30 a.m. one.  After that he didn't wake again until 8:30.  Nearly 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep is a Christmas miracle in my book.

Some things that M is doing now....at 14 months:

* He finally brings me books to read to him.  He is pretty picky...I can't just pick up any old board book.  But he does like to sit in my lap and be read to.

*He knows that ducks say "Cack, cack," because every time he sees a duck--in a book, on tv, in real life-- he says, "Cack, cack."

*He says "Maow" for cat.
*He says "No" uber-clearly.  And uses it completely correctly.  Like when I'm trying to wipe food off his face.
*He says "Bow" for "Wow."
*He walks 90% of the time, so I guess he is officially a toddler.

Operation Night Weaning

N weaned from night-time nursing at 4 weeks of age.  She just started sleeping 8-12 hours a night, every night.  I didn't know how super effin easy I had it with her.
I can totally see why they say girls develop and mature so.much.faster. than boys.

I was able to wean G from night nursing at 10 months.  I was able to pick him up, hold him for a few minutes, he would settle down, and then go back to sleep.  He still woke up 2-3 times a night until he was 14 months old and had tubes put in (at which time he started sleeping 12 hours a night, every night).

And then there is turd.  I mean M.
At 14 months old, he has slept 2 times through the night.  And he still night nurses.  I had started letting him sleep in bed with us, thinking he just wanted to be close to me.  But he quickly realized he had an all-night open bar laying right next to him.

I am tired.  And I am tired of being tired.  So I am weaning him from night-time nursing.  He can suckle as much as he likes during the day, and he usually does 3-4 times.

But I have reached the point where nursing him at night and being woken up so much is making me resentful.  And I don't like that feeling.

Stupidly, I feel sorta like a bad mom.  Guilty.  Whatever.  And it is completely unjustified thinking.  I have given it way more than the ol' college try.  Fourteen months of night-time nursing is effing OUTSTANDING.  Some babies don't get fourteen nights of night-time nursing.  And I'm still happy to daytime nurse him until he is ready to wean.

I have decided it is time to partially reclaim my body, reclaim some semblance of rest.  Time to parent him to sleep, learn that he really can be comforted by someone other than mom and something other than my breast.

Picture(S) of the Day(S)--Dec 4-7--Sickness rules my roost

G started feeling crappy on Saturday.  

Followed by me later in the day on Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday....

Still waiting for a return to normalcy.

Just pretend this picture counts for Sunday and Monday when I felt at my worst. 

The boys cleaning my table with baby butt wipes.  (Clean ones, to be sure.)

Picture of the Day--December 3rd--Putting up the basement tree

The problem with only choosing 1 picture is having 3 very adorable kids.

So here are 3 pics of the day...

Picture of the Day---December 2nd---One down

Tonight N and G helped me put ornaments on the tree in our dining room.  This is our special ornament tree......with ones from mine and D's childhood and all the ornaments the kids have been given.  Every year I buy each kiddo an ornament, so that by the time they leave the house they will have a nice set of decorations for their own trees.  

Picture of the Day--December 1st---A New Tradition

My friend K does a Picture a Day blog in December, and I am totally stealing her idea.  (I hope she doesn't mind.....)
I'm going to do two today since I'm starting a day late.


The start of something new.....

I saw this at Meijer and thought it was really cute.  Every night I add 2 pieces of candy to the next day; N and G take turns opening the door and each gets a piece of candy in the a.m.  We began on December 1st.

More from the author-in-residence

I was going to write about raising sons, but I have Christmas decorations to get out so I don't want to spend eons on this here blog.  So raising sons will have to come later.

N continues to write like crazy...jotting notes, sending letters to cousins and friends.  And over the long Thanksgiving weekend she wrote a couple stories.  Nothing Newbery Medal worthy, but cute nonetheless.

But first, a journal entry I found.....

Dear journal
I wish I could right in cersive when im 7 or 8 And I want too get my ears pearsed  Thank you!

And now......the short, short stories of NGL:

The magic journal  

(This is an original story. Any similarities to the dvd The Barbie Diaries are purely coincidental.)

Oce there was a girl named Makenzie  She had a journal.  She thoght it was magic

So she took it too school and she asked her teacher "every time I right in this it happens"  Why?

And she figured out is was magic

The end.

The super-sour lenonade  

(This is an original story.  Any similarities to Olivia Opens a Lemonade Stand by Kama Einhorn are purely coincidental.)

One day a kitty named Princess opened a lemonade stand so her friends could not get any warmer and the color was pink and when she tried it she said "it's sour!"

And all she had ta-doo was putt some ice and water in.

The.end