Night-Weaning: Night Five

Last night had its ups and downs, more downs than ups.

The first time Ari woke up, Geeky Entrepreneur helped her go back to sleep. She cried for a bit. Once he took care of her diaper, she went right to sleep.

The second time… Well, I am not so sure what happened that time… I think it went ok because Geeky Entrepreneur stayed in bed with us. That means there was not a whole heck of a lot of crying. I have a vague memory of noticing that Ari was not asking to nurse incessantly, as she had done before. It took her a while to go back to sleep, though. That is hard on me because she wants to keep her hand on my chest. I cannot roll over and so I end up with a backache.

The third time sucked big time. Ari was crying. It must have been over an hour by the time she fell asleep. She kept wanting to hold my nipple. This is uncomfortable and really drives me nuts. If I remove her hand, we start back at square one. If I don’t, my nipple hurts, I get frustrated, and the backache returns.

Today I tried putting her down for her nap three times. Not sure what went wrong. Finally, around 3pm, I asked Geeky Entrepreneur to take her for a ride. This is something we seldom do. Not a good habit. But it is an ok plan C when nothing else works. The alternative was to be ok with her not napping. She would drop of exhaustion around 5-6 and then she would be up until 10 or so. Unacceptable.

I hear that about 20 minutes into the ride, Ari fell asleep and slept for almost two hours.

As for me, I had big plans. Sunday is cleaning/laundry/everything day for us. But all I did was wash her clothes and nap. I needed it badly. I am so tired after all the hard nights that I have an almost constant headache. I have been feeling unmotivated and moody lately. My poor husband… Thank you for being so supportive and helping out, my love!

I remember reading that people need 21 days to break a habit. I really hope that that is not true! Please, tell me that is just a myth! Otherwise, we are only 25% of the way there!

A bit of good news: after eating poorly for the past few days, Ari is slowly starting to eat more. She is thin. She is not getting the calories she had been getting from nighttime mama milk. So we need her to eat up, not reduce her caloric intake! Feel free to share what works for you and your family, any tips you have heard, etc. This mommy is a bit desperate! I don’t want my baby to be so thin she will fall off the famous chart. Most importantly, I want her to be eating healthy again.

I was about to get in the shower, but I scratched that idea because I cannot find my shampoo! Yes, I looked everywhere. Where is it, kid? Hopefully one of the two other people in this house, the ones with better eyes, can give me a hand when they get in. Maybe she will even remember where she left it!