There are several things changing at the Kennedy Compound. Some are bringing much needed relief, others are being met with a little sadness.
So, what's happening? Steve is sleeping through the night. I'll let that sink in for a minute.
Yes, really; he's sleeping through the night. It's been a very long time coming, and there have been some struggles, but we finally made it happen. Here's what we did.
I followed the instructions in the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Dr. Weissbluth. Basically, the goal was to match Steve's biological clock with his nap times and bedtime. We moved his morning nap closer to when he wakes up, so that usually means no later than 8:30 a.m., but usually closer to 8. Another key item is to limit his morning activities so he is getting stimulation, and lots of it, but we try to stay close to home during the morning in case he has an extra early nap and needs a short cat nap before lunch. Lunch has always been around 11:00 or 11:30 because of daycare, which is completely okay with me. That is quickly followed by his afternoon nap which lasts about 1.5 hours, 2 if I've been a really good mommy and he loves me extra.
The big change was bedtime. I had no idea that putting Steve to bed around 7 was too late. But it apparently was. When we started this business about 3 or 4 weeks ago, I tried 6 as a starting time for a bedtime routine, but I thought that was probably going to be too early. Nope. I was wrong. Steve has taken to the earlier bedtime marvelously. We also instituted a routine, which we hadn't previously been doing (and I blamed it on nursing him, but really I was lazy). We start with a bath, then quiet time in his room while he gets his p.j.'s on, followed by 2 books being read, and winding up with nursing. The first few times he was still waking up in the middle of the night and wanting to nurse (wanting, not NEEDING). Then we went on vacation and that was hard on all of us (good, but tough as far as nighttime sleeping goes). The final piece of the puzzle came early last week.
When we returned from vacation, Matt had to leave for 3 days to go to Spooner, Wisconsin. I decided that the two nights he was gone were the nights to just let Steve figure things out in the middle of the night. No more visits from Momma, no more nursing, completely cut off. And what do you know? He did. There have been a couple of nights when he has woken up, cried for less than 30 minutes, and gone right back to sleep.
The trade off for Steve sleeping through the night is that he is regularly up at 6 every morning. But really, that's fine with me (most days). I don't stay up really late, usually 10 is the latest, so I'm getting a good amount of sleep as well. Plus, this keeps Steve on track for the school year when we all have to be out of the house by 6:30 a.m.
Now, for the other big change that is actually bringing some sadness. I'm weaning Steve off of breast feeding. Physically, it hasn't been too bad. There have been a couple of days when the pain of engorged breasts, but my body quickly figured out that it didn't need as much milk as was being produced. We cut out the pre-naptime nursing sessions starting last Monday, after vacation. I was planning to start cutting out the pre-bedtime session starting next week, but it looks like I might be able to do it sooner. Tonight I tried nursing him before bed and he wasn't really interested. So...I think we might be done. It's been an up and down journey for Steve, Matt, and I as we figured out what worked, what didn't, and many other changes. I am so happy that I was able to stick it out for almost the entire year of Steve's little life. So, yeah, I'm a little sad that this chapter is ending, but completely looking forward to all of the new chapters that are on the horizon.
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