Weaning...

A few people have asked me lately how weaning is going. "So far so good!" I'd tell them with a smile. For the last few weeks, Matthew (my recently-turned 1 yr old) has been on whole milk during the day and only one nursing session in the middle of the night. Everything was going beautifully. He transitioned to a sippy cup and solid food with no problems. He loves whole milk so much that he tries to drink it from the jug when I set it beside him in the grocery cart. He has always been my good sleeper, and for the past several months he's been sleeping through the night with one (sometimes two) feedings. YAY ME!! I thought to myself, as I remembered how tough it was to get my first born to sleep through the night.

Then 3 nights ago everything changed. There was no more milk. Where did it go? I have no idea, but it's gone. Matthew nursed but wasn't satisfied. He then drank 12 oz of warm whole milk before going back to sleep. I was up for 2 hours or more- I can't remember. The next night he wanted nothing to do with the bottle. He had a few sips and then let me rock him to sleep with "Nummy" (pacifier). Now here we are on night three (it's 3:50am as I'm writing this post).

Let me interject for just a moment to let you know that Nummy is gone. We have no idea where he is. This is a big problem for a weaning baby! A Nummy is a mom's best friend when the baby wants what he can't have. *sigh* We've searched the house high and low, looked in shoes, emptied laundry baskets, checked drawers and looked under beds. I remember where it was when we returned from the grocery store. I told myself: So that's where it is- I need to remember that at bedtime. When bedtime rolled around it was nowhere in sight. We put one of Courtney's old Nuks in the crib with him, but he prefers the big round green ones, so it was a long shot. And yes, we only have one. (Mistake #1).

Oh, and he's teething.

Back to the story.

He woke up at 1:48. Our pediatrician's words rang in my ear: He doesn't need to eat in the middle of the night. You can try other methods for getting him to self-soothe. So, I let him cry for just a few minutes. Then I remembered that Nummy was MIA, so I decided to get him some milk. I fumbled my way to the fridge and put the milk in a sippy cup because I couldn't find a bottle (Mistake #2). I went into his room and offered the cup and Alternate Nummy, only to be met with fits and tears. I put him back in the bed and went to my room to let him cry it out for a few minutes (Mistake #3).

A few minutes turned into an hour and 10 minutes. I tried twice more to comfort him, but he was so worked up that he could not calm down. It was obvious that he wanted to nurse, and quite clear that he was not happy about his new feeding arrangements. Finally, at 3am I took him to the living room, turned on a lamp and grabbed a  lift-a-flap book. Suddenly he was all smiles. He drank his milk, played with his toys, ate some Lucky Charms, finished off part of my apple and went back to bed- at 3:56am. So here we are now at 4am and I hear him wimpering.

No Nummy. I'm sure that's the reason. I have no idea where it is. This morning I searched for twenty minutes before finding it in a pair of panties in the living room floor. (My oldest decided the laundry basket was her cat cage, so she had to dump the folded laundry onto the floor and trap her brother). We were going to the doctor's office for shots, so I searched desperately. Literally 2 seconds after saying Amen I found it and thanked God for answering my prayer. I didn't find it tonight, however, so I can only assume that God has a lesson He wants me to learn from all of this.

Now he's crying full force. It is 4:10.

One thing I have enjoyed over the last few nights is the quiet time I've had once he falls back to sleep. I seem to hear God best in the middle of the night- possibly because I am not distracted by to-do lists or children or social media (yeah, I said it). On average, it takes me a full 30-45 minutes to fall to sleep, so I've had a lot of down time to think, pray and just be still. Right now I'm listening to a thunderstorm outside. Matthew's cries are beginning to wane. Maybe he'll go to sleep again soon? I don't know, it's just nice to be quiet, still and alone sometimes when your day is full of busyness and noise.

4:14am

The storm is picking up, but the thunder sounds further away.

Matthew is still crying.

4:25am

I took a short break to watch Anita Renfroe on Youtube. Somewhere in the last few minutes Matthew fell soundly to sleep. I think I'll head to bed as well. I love lying in bed listening to the rain. And to think, if Matthew had slept all night I would have missed it!

Perhaps tomorrow we'll find Nummy... poor, lost, lonely & afraid Nummy.

O' Nummy, where art thou?