NIGHTWEANING!!!

Yes: we're still breastfeeding. Since Nathaniel is allergic to egg, soy, peanut, and all cow products from steak and ground beef to milk and yogurt, I feel like it's an important thing to do. Not to mention that the international medically recommended minimum time for nursing is two full years, and Nathaniel is only eighteen months. But whatever.

Last week I decided that the time had come to nightwean Nathaniel. Since he was born at around ten and a half pounds, I've always fed him multiple times at night: he's got a big body but started out with a little tummy, and in the night I could hear his little tummy rumble. Plus, since we bedshare, it was just so easy to feed him at night, and neither of us would really have to move or fully wake up. It was very convenient.

But Carl wants us to move him to his own toddler bed, and so the first step in that process was making it so he could fall asleep without being in the process of nursing--a project that took a few weeks, but now works fine. Before, when I wanted him to sleep, I would just lay down with him and nurse him to sleep in the dark. Now, I nurse him for night in the light, and then turn off the light and cuddle him to sleep. He hates it when Dad cuddles him to sleep, so we still have something to work on, but at least he is physically capable now of falling asleep without nursing simultaneously.

Anyway, step two has been to cut out night feedings entirely. Two weeks ago, Nathaniel was getting up like clockwork at 1 am and 4:45 am for nursing.

One week ago, I decided that after 1:30 am, the milk is asleep.

So for a few days, Nathaniel just cried when I told him he couldn't have the milk because it was sleeping. I held him, and rocked him, and kissed him, and offered him water which he rejected, and just generally felt sad for him, but not too sad, because he only had to wait for an hour, since we get up at six every morning anyway.

After maybe three days of that, Nathaniel learned that it is actually important to eat real food at dinnertime, and now when it's bedtime he always asks to eat after he's in his jammies. So we go back down and fill up that baby tummy, and then do a good night nursing, and cuddle to sleep.

Anyway, after he learned that particular lesson, I told him that milk had to sleep in the night just like he did--all night long. And then that night, when he woke up at 1 o'clock, he just signed for water, drank like half a cup of it, and went back to sleep. Same at 4:45.

And he hasn't gotten up at night since then. That was maybe on Friday.

So, happy day: I think we're nightweaned. It's only been a few days, so maybe not, but so far so good.

In related news, Nathaniel's eighteen-month birthday is next Sunday, so he gets to start NURSERY! I just can't wait. This last week at church he was totally crazy. He is definitely ready to be able to play with toys and eat snacks and think about Jesus with other kids his same age, instead of disrupting Gospel Principles and Relief Society with me.