We'll start with our big announcement first:
I'm expecting
you to all be as excited as I am that Dustin finally defended his thesis!! Yay, yay and more yay. I was super proud of him. His committee had nothing but praise (could it have been because they were in a hurry to catch a flight? Nah.). We have hardly seen Dustin for the last four months because he has been so diligent in working to finish it, so we are all very ready for lots of Daddy-Daughter Dates.
My sister, Monica, and her two girls came to visit for two weeks. It was tons of fun and so busy. The kids were great together, with very few fights. They shared toys and kisses and germs and and so all five kids came down with Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease (sound familiar Aggie Village-ites?).
Thinking it was Chicken Pox and that everyone was immune, we then took our germs to Denver for a few days for our nephew Tysen's baptism and shared them with Dustin's side of the family. Sorry everyone. But it was really fun to be there for it and see Dustin's family.
There were multiple cute babies born which we visited and cuddled (and hopefully didn't infect).
Our van broke (again) and got fixed, but we didn't have to pay for it because it was the mechanics fault. That made me not so mad at the mechanic.
My sister Nicole graduated from BYU, which Monica and I and all five kids attended, twice. She then left for China for six weeks, lucky girl.
And the kids stole a jeep and drove to Texas.
And that has been our month.
But now I need your help. One of my callings is Young Women Camp Director. Camp is in June and I am still nursing Ryan. The goal was to have him weened by then as he will be just a few weeks short of one year. I am working on this, all except for nights. He is waking up four to five times a night. Now, I realize that I shouldn't nurse him back to sleep, but when I am being woken up every two hours of the night, I can't logically think of good reasons to not have him fall instantly asleep by nursing. So, if any of you have any great methods of getting a baby to sleep through the night, please post a comment and let me know. Keep in mind that we are in a two-bedroom, so all three children are in the same room. This makes the cry-it-out method a little harder (plus, I just can't handle that one). Thanks for any suggestions you may have (except these)!
Oh, and in case you are confused, no I am not pregnant.
8 comments:
Carolyn--okay, so first I have to say I'm glad to hear of SOMEONE else who's baby is still waking up to nurse that often at his age (11 months?) AND that you can't handle cry-it-out. I've certainly been there, done that, and feel like I'm the only person in the world with such a situation.
But, I'm not glad at your expense--I know it's very tiring. Luke was nursing that frequently at night up until about a year old. I decided enough was enough. I've read a few books that can help with night weaning--I'd recommend No Cry Sleep Solution. I tried some of the gradual weaning methods mentioned in the book but was just getting too exhausted and frustrated. So I did something similar--The Jay Gordon Method www.drjaygordon.com/development/ap/sleep.asp. Check that out. The only difference with what we did was that I put Luke back in his crib after comforting. It was hard; it involves crying, but not just leaving him all alone. It's also easier if the dad can take the babe for a night to comfort him. Ryan did that a couple of times. The first few nights of no nursing were difficult; Luke put up a big fuss and we were both sleep deprived. But after a few nights, he accepted other means of comfort and now he's night weaned and goes back to sleep with some patting and such. (Now I'm trying to wean him off of that!) So that's what we did. I feel like it's easier than cry-it-out because you're not suddenly cutting off all response from you. Hope that helps. Sorry to leave such a long comment! Let me know if you have questions! Good luck.
P.S. Those baby do and don'ts were hilarious!
Oh yeah, and we also only have two bedrooms with the boys in the same room. So for the time that we were weaning Luke, we had Tucker sleep on the floor in our room. It was a like a special occasion thing for him and he moved back to his own bed without a problem.
I used to have all the answers on getting babies to sleep through the night and on weaning as well, But I currently have a "I wanna nurse all day and all night" 19 month old son. So I am pretty sure that discredits any advice I can give. I think he has slept through the night about 8 times in his life. Lately I go in and tell him we aren't going to nurse till morning (we talk about light coming in the window, but really its probably over his head) and then I sing a primary song to him, while I am leaning over the crib rail, rubbing his back (while mine aches) SOmetimes it works and he lays down all sweetly and goes back to sleep, sometimes, he throws himself on the mattress at the first few words (I'm sure has nothing to do with my hideous voice!) and cries himself back to sleep. ANd sometimes he just ends up in bed with me! I know, really consistent, but I get tired too!
Very clever there, I almost believed it for a second. I had to read it a couple of times though. Anyway, we're actually expecting.
As for the weaning thing, Shelby pretty much weaned herself but I think it was because I got pregnant again and there was something about it she didn't like. But if he takes a bottle, someone told me to start giving water instead of milk because he probably won't want that and may be more likely to be soothed by a binky or whatever to go back to sleep. Good luck!
You're too funny! Both my kids at around 4-6 months hit that phase where they'd been sleeping fine until then but started waking up 80 zillion times a night. Crying it out sucked, but it was the only thing left or I'd lose my sanity. It was only 1 day of C.I.O with Savanna and 4 with Lilly before it was solved but I hear ya, that's tough! Good luck!
Oh wait, is your sister in China with those BYU dance students? Did she feel the earthquake?! I bet she did!! How scary. I have Chinese friends who say they felt it all the way in Beijing.
good luck with the night-time weaning....i'm a let them cry it out thing...but we really only had to do that with collin. we learned the hard way (and only once, thank goodness!) i think that the key is (and only if you do it from the start) to always teach them self-soothing. we had no problems with jack going to sleep at night (though are pacifier people) by himself. he is still really good. every once in a while he'll wake up in the night, but if you can find a pacifer to give him, he'll go right back to sleep...i realize it is a little different for us considering that jack is almost 3...but you do what works with your baby...which, i know can be really frustrating sometimes...good luck! and even though i wish that we could have seen you guys when you were out here, i'm glad that we didn't and that we didn't get any of your friendly germs!
Well I don't think I have "good" advice because I'm lazy and like my sleep too much. I do the supernanny method and when it doesn't work I bring in a sippy cup of milk and the dvd player with baby einstein and go back to bed. Then again, he only wakes up and cries 2 or 3 times a month, so it's not like I do it every night, but hey, once you're at camp you won't have to deal with it for a week!
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