Unintentional night owls

We're rounding out our third week in our attempts to night wean Nora. Why is a family that struggled so hard to breastfeed night weaning a toddler, you ask?

Before, if we waited until after 11:00 pm to go to bed, and figured on getting up somewhere between 4:30-5:30 am, she might end up in bed with us two or three times on average. I'd put her back in her crib (on a good night) only to start the process again in an hour or two. Besides the chronic fatigue, my hips were getting sore, nerve pain was shooting down my leg, and I was getting numbness pretty easily in many of my fingers. The final straw was a close call or two in the car when I realized that sleep deprivation was making me a hazard to myself and the family I was trying to support by breastfeeding. Thank goodness for rumble strips! I looked terrible, I felt terrible.

In short, we were falling apart in some respects, so we decided to night wean. To do this, I nurse Nora whenever she wants up until bedtime, then not again until morning. Period. The easiest way we've found for her to deal with this is for me not to be the one who tends to her in the night time.

Enter Ian. No, actually, that makes it sound like he is only now getting involved. Whereas before he was getting up multiple times per night, retrieving Nora when she cried, bringing her to bed with us, going downstairs to make a bottle to supplement her night nursing, and often tucking her back in when my numb extremities couldn't pick her up safely, his job just morphed a little. Now instead of bottles or musical beds, he gets to play the "Get Nora to Go Back to Sleep When All She Wants is Mommy" game. Woo hoo!

Now, it's not that I don't have a job and Ian does, but Ian actually has to look good while he's doing his bit to support our family. Plus since I often lie in bed and listen to Nora howl, feeling her wails jangling in every single nerve ending and willing myself not to go scoop her out of her crib and snuggle down into bed with her, my poor hearing often allows me to sleep through Fiona's sometimes multiple excursions to the bathroom. Contrary to all logic, Fiona's nocturnal jaunts still require an escort.

So now Ian is the one who doesn't look so good; and what's sad is I don't feel a whole lot better either, and Nora is dissatisfied to boot. Plus, Fiona doesn't see any of this as a reason to try the bathroom run solo even though the hallway and bath are lit up like a runway and her nocturnal trips to retrieve a parent are farther than it would be to go straight to the bathroom. So if you ever speak to one of us and we say something unintelligible, it's because the sleep deprivation doesn't go away when the infancy doeszzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.