a plan for night weaning
Posted in parenthood on January 30th, 2009 by Raincity Mama – Comments OffI got the word at work that the “possibly/maybe” business trip has turned into a tentatively scheduled business to Toronto in the beginning of March. Part of me is excited for the prospect of the learning events and I get really, really excited at the prospect of sleeping alone in a bed for hours at a stretch. Giddy in fact.
Then I feel guilty about feeling excited in the first place. The kids still nurse at night, they co-sleep with us. If I’m going to go away for five days/four nights I have to get them night weaned and I need to get them to go to sleep without me nursing them to sleep or being in the room. It feels impossible. It feels like I should have figured this out long ago. I have a tentative plan. I’ve been reading Dr. Gordon’s plan and an article by the Sears’ and both seem like plans with will work for our kids. I know that they are capable of sleeping without nursing, I’m just dreading their complaints about changing their routine.
In the time it has taken me to write this post I’ve been upstairs three times to settle the kids back to sleep. Now, granted one has a fever and the other is getting over a cold so I expect that is why they are unsettled, but it seems crazy that I’ve had to go up three times in an hour and a half.
The first step in our plan is to get the kids’ room ready. They have a room, they’ve just never slept in it. When they were newborns they slept in a co-sleeper attached to the side of our bed. There was no way I was going to wake up and trudge down the hall to deal with two babies. I still enjoy co-sleeping with the kids but I’m unsure of how successful we will be in night weaning if they stay sleeping by my side. I’m also worried that moving them to their room will be too much of a change to be added to by the night weaning. That said, I’m planning on sleeping in there for the first few night to get them used to their new room.
So when do we start? We were hoping to drop the kids off at my parents tomorrow so that we could clear out all the stuff we’ve been storing in the kids’ room but if the child with the fever is still feverish tomorrow I don’t want to make my parents deal with a sick kid. Once the room is cleared out we will put the spare queen sized mattress in there and get them used to their new room.
Crap, I hear a coughing kid. I hope this cold or whatever it is goes away soon because there is no way I will start night weaning sick kids. Wish me luck!