Night Night Bubba (Part 1)

Daytime nursing--which we continue

Extended breastfeeding (beyond one year) is not very common in western culture. I'm sure plenty of folks think I'm nutso because I'm still breastfeeding our 26-month-old. Trust me, there are plenty of way better reasons to think I'm nutso, and breastfeeding a two-, three- or four-year-old (and beyond) is actually quite normal in much of the rest of the world. Zora and my breastfeeding relationship has had highs and lows, but overall, I'm very happy with it. In the active, often crazy life spent with a toddler, there is nothing I find sweeter than settling down in a comfy chair and having her big eyes gaze up at me as she nurses. If possible, I will be doing baby (or rather toddler)-led weaning. For now, she's still going strong, so we continue.

Night time is another issue. I haven't really had much good sleep since Zora was born. The first year was pretty terrible, though I somehow managed to function. Zora was (and still is) sleeping in our bed, and would nurse very often at night. Though I wished for more sleep, I was ok with the nighttime nursing, since I knew that not nursing at night would not necessarily guarantee that we would have any fewer wakings--not to mention that other methods of getting her back to sleep took far more energy than rolling over and whipping out a boob!

During her second year, I considered night-weaning from time-to-time, though it was almost like Zora was stringing me along. Every time sleep got so bad that I felt that night-weaning was the only solution left, sleep would get better for a period, and I would put it off. Some may wonder why in the world would I put something off that could possibly lead to better sleep. Well, when you're getting really crappy sleep, it's difficult to motivate yourself to do something that will make your sleep crappier before it possibly makes it better. When sleep would improve, I didn't want to upset anything, since I was enjoying the additional sleep. Every time I wondered if perhaps Zora's sleep patterns would settle on their own, and night-weaning would become unnecessary. And around and around I would go.

Somewhere around 2 years, I decided that I wanted to try night-weaning to see if it could improve our sleep. It was again put on hold due to changes going on in Zora's life to which I didn't want to add: a new bedtime routine, a family vacation, a cold, and relentless and seemingly endless teething. I did, however write a little book for Zora (Night Night Bubba) so that we could read it together and talk about what I was planning. She ended up loving the book, and we read it over and over for a few weeks. Finally, when things settled down a bit, I picked a night and just went for it. I had originally planned on using this night-weaning plan, but in the end decided that it required too much brain power--of which I have so little (due to lack of sleep). Instead, I would just talk with Zora about it during the day, and then offer her other kinds of comfort when she would wake at night (rubbing her back, singing, telling stories, sips of water, etc.). The first night brought lots of tears (she was never left alone during these tears--I was always there with her) and Zora clawing at my shirt the first two times she woke up. There were fewer tears the following couple of nights, and by night #4, she would pretty consistently go back to sleep after taking a little sip of water and snuggling with me. She has continued to wake frequently though.

We have done 9 nights of this, and here's what our nights have looked like so far...
 **For all of these nights, Zora fell asleep (with Papa) sometime between 7:45 and 8pm**
Night #1: Woke at 9pm, 12am, 2:30am, 4:30am (nursed) and 6:30am (for the day)
Night #2: Woke at 12:30am, 2:30am, 4:30am (nursed) and 6:30am
Night #3: Woke frequently between 12am and 2:30am, when I finally nursed her. Woke again at 4am (nursed), 6am (nursed) and 7am
Night #4: Woke at 12:30am, 2:30am, 4am (nursed), 6am
Night #5: Woke at 12am, 2am, 4am, 5am (nursed), 6am
Night #6: Woke at 12am, 2:30am, restless between 4:30 & 6am, 7am
Night #7: Woke at 10pm (needed to pee), 4:30am (nursed), restless between 4:30 and 5:30am, 7:30am
Night #8: Woke at 11pm (needed to pee), 2:30am, 5am (nursed), 7am
Night #9: Woke at 9:30 (arrrgh!), 2:30am, 5am (nursed), 6:30am

I am nursing her in the early morning, since I can tell she's on the brink of waking up for the day, and if I nurse her then, I buy myself a couple more hours of sleep. I would be more than ok with one feeding a night (or early in the morning), but perhaps I'll have to experiment with taking this nursing session out as well. I labeled this post a "Part 1", because I'm hopeful that there will be a "Part 2" sometime in the future, where I will be writing about all the long stretches of sleep we're getting. A girl can dream...