Posts Tagged "Breastfeeding"

Sleepless

Posted by Michelle on Oct 5, 2010 in Breastfeeding, Parenting | 1 comment

About a week and a half ago, we transitioned The Little Empress from sleeping in our family bed to her own full-sized futon the floor beside our bed. The futon was originally in her room and while she showed interest in it, I was hesitant to let her sleep in her own room because I was afraid I wouldn’t hear her cry. The shared room co-sleeping was working well until I accidentally let her cry it out a few nights ago and our sleep hasn’t been the same since.

While she had been a pretty good sleeper up until that point, TLE’s now regularly getting up every 2 to 3 hours after being put down to sleep . Last night, she got up at 10:30PM and started crying for me to nurse her back down. She had a full meal before bed, with plenty of milk, so there’s no reason that she would have woken up other than being insecure.

Midnight nursing was never a problem when we shared a bed and it has been at least several months that she’s actually nursed in the wee hours. I’m usually free from being pawed between the time I put her down to about 6:00AM. But now that she’s in a bed on the floor, and demanding to be nursed down, I’m having to get out of my bed, move down to her bed, nurse her down and then (maybe) crawl back into my own bed. And that’s if she doesn’t get up and start crying the moment she feels me try to leave the bed. More often, I’m sleeping for hours at a time on her futon which is great for her but not so great for me.

*sigh* Just when I thought she’d nightweaned herself, this has thrown a wrench into things. I was really hoping not to forcibly nightwean her but it looks like I may have to in order to get some semblence of sleep. Until then, I’m guzzling coffee like there’s no tomorrow….

Nursing gymnast

Posted by Michelle on Nov 13, 2008 in Breastfeeding, Parenting | 0 comments

I remember posting a photo on my Flickr when The Little Empress was just a wee babe. She was nursing and looking up at me with the sweetest, cutest look ever. And, for the most part, still. She wiggled a bit but that was it. I remember people commenting, “Wait till she gets older. She won’t lay still.”

And how true it is. These days, TLE still nurses more than 10 times a day but they’re for short little periods. Why? Because she gets easily distracted. While she’ll nurse until she’s conked out around naptime (10:00AM, 2:00PM and 4:00PM these days), at other times, she’s more interested in climbing than nursing. Because apparently, Mommy makes the best. jungle gym. ever. We usually nurse on the couch with TLE nursing sitting up because that’s the easiest way for her to reach the breast. Except these days, she prefers to “stand” straddling my left leg while bouncing from one breast to another at whim. And if I cover the breast she’s not eating from, she howls in protest. It’s become a bit of a game for her and while hilarious, it makes nursing her somewhat annoying when she can’t figure out which boob she wants to eat from. Sometimes, she’ll nurse from one boob and reach her arm out to tweak the other breast. I’m not sure why she does this but she seems to enjoy it, especially when Mommy screams “OW!”