Speaking of dreams, there may be a reason I've been having so many lately. I'm finally getting some sleep!
For the first time in 6 years I am sleeping through the night. (For the most part.) Aside from waking to pee in the early morning hours, I'm asleep all night. Yes, that can mean only one thing... the girls have night weaned!
A few weeks ago we finally decided to try to get the girls to night wean. I've been wanting them to for quite some time but just didn't want to push them before they were ready. Month after month passed I have known that they were capable of sleeping without nursing at night, but just couldn't bring myself to put an end to it just yet. It's bittersweet to see them growing up.
Becoming pregnant again meant that the night nursing would soon become uncomfortable and eventually unbearable. When I found it that I'm having twins again, I decided that it was time to encourage some night weaning. I went through this with J and with two nursing I figured it would be twice as bad.
Fortunately, S is easygoing about everything. She was the first to sleep through the night and didn't even wake when her sister woke up calling for me.
For those who are wondering, here's how we did it. First, we moved the girls into their own rooms a few months ago (around 19 months I think.) This meant that when they woke to nurse I now had to drag myself across the house to get them. Which also meant that they stayed in my bed for the rest of the night because I was too tired to take the back to their room.
The next step was using Jason to retrieve the girls for me. Since this was all his idea, I volunteered him to get the girls as they woke and bring them to me. (This worked great until he went back to working nights!) He was very diligent about returning the girls to their beds when they were done nursing.
Next, Jason started to comfort the girls when they woke up without bringing them to me to nurse. The first few nights involved some protesting ("Milkies Daddy!!!!") but there were little to no tears. I am pleased to say that this really was a "no-cry sleep solution" for our family! Jason would hold the girls, rub their backs, and soothe them until they went to sleep. The whole process lasted anywhere from a few seconds with S to a few minutes with L.
Jason then went back to working nights again. His schedule is crazy! He works nights and then switches to days. He does 6 days on and 3 days off. It's a nightmare and we never see him when he's on nights. I hate it. Anyway, I digress...
So with Jason at work at night I had to take over the soothing. With S it was no problem because she was now sleeping throiugh the night. L was another story. The first few nights she was angry and demanded milkies. I was exhausted and so I brought her to bed and bnursed her. Then I put her back in her own bed. After a few nights of this Jason was home for 3 nights and took over again. By the end of those 3 nights she was sleeping almost through the night, only waking twice. Now I was anle to get her back to sleep without nursing simply by giving her a hug, laying her down, and covering her up with her blnaket. No tears, no talking, no problem!
Now I'm at the point where L is only waking up around 5am and sometimes she does want to nurse and I let her stay in bed with me until it's time to get up. Most of the time she sleeps through until 7 or 7:30am in her own bed. S sleeps through every night.
I feel like a new person with this extra sleep! I haven't had a good night's sleep in YEARS. From the time I was pregnant with M I have been up at night for variouis reasons. With him it was preterm labor and PIH that made sleep difficult. Then he was born and night nursing took over until he slept through the night. By then I was pregnant with J and then nursing J at night. J coslept and did not sleep through the night for quite some time. I was pregnant again before he was completely night-weaned and let's just say that being pregnant with almost 15 lbs of baby squishing your innards makes sleep impossible. So that leads me to where I am now-knowing what the future holds in just a few short months and praying that I get enough sleep between now & then to make it bearable!
