Night Weaning

It was the recipe for the perfect blog. Take one long term breastfed toddler, add a healthy dose of teething and one daddy bear who is decidedly NOT Mr.sunshine and Roses when woken from his beauty sleep in the middle of the night. Now, minus one momma bear to the spare room and watch the proverbial hit the fan.

At this point, you may be shaking your heads and going, "huh?" Well, allow me to fill you in. We have decided to night wean the snot queen. For reasons of health (mine) and sanity (also mine) not to mention the current economic climate, "Mama's All Night Dairy Bar" is reducing it's night time clientele. From here on out, I shall be servicing but one tiny patron between the hours of 8pm and 8am.

This patron is not the Snot Queen.

For the last two nights, myself and the tiny one have retired to the spare room whilst daddy bear and herself have spent the nights alone and milkless together.

We expected mutiny.

We expected fire and brimstone raining down upon us.

We expected a calibre of tantrums this world has never seen.

Instead, for the first time in ages, we got a good night's sleep. Twice.

Now, I'm not complaining, but I can't help but wonder, WTF?!?!? The first and only other time we tried to withhold her night time feed and "wait out" her tantrumming, we waited for over two hours. Do you know what two hours of unrelenting screaming by an eighteen month child can do to your psyche? Do you know what sort of heinous acts you can almost be driven to? Seriously! Tranquillizer darts start to seem like a reasonable option.

So you can understand our fear and trepidation when we decided to cut her off cold turkey. How would she react to this sudden removal of her... I mean my breasts? What would she DO?!?!?

Well, nothing really.

The first night, she woke up two or three times, but instead of inciting world war three, she simply crawled over to where I'd usually be, looked around for a minute, cuddled up with her dad, and went back to sleep.

The second night (last night,) started out ominously enough with a ten minute screaming session where she held on to her poor mouth (she's teething) and cried to break your heart. Mine did. It was all I could do not to rip off my bra, run in and hold her in my arms. Her daddy did great though and she went back to sleep. For. The. Rest. Of. The. Night.

Not a peep. Not a whimper. Nada. Apparently, it's a case of "out of sight, out of mind" (and mouth!)

I can't stay away forever though. It won't be long before myself and the small one return to the family sleeping grounds and that my friends, will be the real test.

That being said, the spare bed is REALLLLY comfy. I might wait just a teensy bit longer...