Weaning Colin

Night One (Friday Jan. 16, 2009)

Went much better then I expected. I nursed him at 7 as usual, and put him to bed awake, like always, he woke up the first time at 1am, so I had Mike (since he was still home) go in a comfort him and turn on his music. He ended up crying for just over an hour, it was bearable. I never got up. The next time was about 5:30- I did get up and nurse him that time for my own selfish reasons. I didn't want him to wake up the other kids and I really wanted to go back to sleep too! So we nursed and went to back to bed for a couple hours.

Night Two (Saturday Jan 17, 2009)

Mike and I had plans to go to dinner and a movie, so I knew we wouldn't be home for that normal 7pm session, which was good. He went to bed good for GG, however woke up as soon as we got home, to the chaos of Caden and Courtney still up, talking loudly, at 9:30 at night. I tired to ignore him, but he was NOT having it. I nursed him about 10pm and put him back in again screaming, he screamed again for about another hour, but eventually crashed. He then, kept to his schedule and woke up 2 times, about 2 and again at 5- I didn't get up either time, let him cry, the first was 1.5 hours, the second 1 hour. He slept until 8:00am Sunday Morning.

Night Three (Sunday Jan 18, 2009)

I nursed at 5pm when I got home from shopping, he miserable and kept going to the "chair".I did not nurse him for his 7pm, session, it was QUITE ugly to say the least, I think this has been the worse of the days as of yet. The night was much more horrid as well. He woke up 4 times, screaming for at least an hour each time. I never gave in to him. He woke up at 7am, at that time, I did give in to a feeding, but it was as much my sake as his. I was dying of pain! Considering 4 of his 5 daily sessions were night ones, I was producing a ton of milk during the night. Not feeding him at 7pm and then again during the night brought some huge engorgement for mommy! Ouch! Last thing I want to do is end up with Mastitis AGAIN (I've already had it 2x's, the last one, a couple months ago, really really bad!)

So here it is Monday afternoon. I feed him at 7 this morning. My goal is not do it anymore today, or tonight. I know the trouble is going to be at 5pm during the week when I get home from work. The main goal of this is #1 to get the little devil to sleep through the night. 2nd, to be completely weaned. I am going to take it slow.... Once I can get the though the night with no wakings at all taken care of ~ Then I plan to wean all the way...... I am willing to keep up the one feeding per day after work for a couple more weeks if I need to, but that is it! No night, morning or afternoon anything. This is so freaking hard! But I guess I never expected it to be easy either. It's all Will Power. Baby Steps. I will NOT get up with him during the night, I've been good for 3 nights and will continue to do so. The most we do is go in and let him know he is OK (no picking him up) and Turing his music on. Sure it upsets him more, but at least he knows we do care! I am looking forward to hopefully by my Birthday next month to have my body belong to only ME! Time will tell......

Night 4 January 19th Monday....

I had to nurse Colin two times during the day (Monday) at 4 and 7- it was the only way to settle him. But he went to bed at 8 awake as usual, just fine. He didn't wake up crying until 4am, so that tells me that I am doing OK with this.. he is learning how to sleep longer! He did cry until 5:30- but he went back to sleep. He woke up for the day at 7, wanting to nurse... so I nursed him. I really want to break that 7am and 7pm session with the night ones and then work on the 5pm one later on, but he is making it very hard to do so. Today when I get home is going to be the true test to the 5pm session. I am already dreading it.... Here's to another better night?!

Night 5 January 20th Tuesday

Colin slept through the entire night for the first time in over 18 months!!! He went in at 8pm last night ( I purposely was the one to pick up Courtney from religion so I wasn't home and didn't have to do that 7pm feeding session) and slept until 6:30 this morning, at which point yes, I had to nurse him, but that's OK, we got 10.5 hours out of him!! Yippee! That is a HUGE feat. I can't wait to see if tonight goes the same way. Of course I had to nurse him as soon as I got home from work yesterday. I am not sure how to break that?! If anyone has ANY suggestions, please please share, I am open to ANY advice available. The only thing I could think of was to not come home until 8 when he was already in bed for a week and OBVIOUSLY that is NOT going to happen! So now that's we've hopefully conquered the nighttime, I have to work on the 2 daytime sessions... Prayers needed STILL!