Weaning and Sleep Training.

I have wanted to journal this mini-journey in my life about weaning Ruby and really training her to sleep through the night. While I may do that, typing it out seems a lot more convenient at the moment. Sad, I know. I've become so lazy with journaling that it hurts my hand to write much at all. And my hand writing is terrible. So here goes my virtual journaling...

I am still breast feeding Ruby between 3-5 times per day. This number is actually substantially less than it was a couple of weeks ago. While I started introducing solid foods to her at around 6 months, I didn't do it much. Not for any particular reason, other than it is messy and nursing is much more convenient. However, now that she is 12 1/2 months old, I feel like the time is right to really begin training her to rely on solids for her main source of nutrition. In the last 1-2 weeks I have really buckled down and made sure to make her meals 3 times per day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She has done incredibly well with this! As long as my girl has a full tummy, she stays happy. So as of right now I nurse her first thing in the morning (other mommies know WHY that is important...;-)) and before nap and before bed. So, that is the progress I've made with teaching her to eat solids. A lot more of a seem-less transition than I thought it would be! Thankful for that.

At the same time that I decided it's time to start feeding Ruby more solids, I also decided it is time she starts sleeping straight through the night. While I am not a fan of the "Cry It Out" method of sleep-training for little babies, I've come to a peace of trying it with my one year old. I started trying this out about 1 1/2 weeks ago, and it was ROUGH at first. Before this, Ruby was waking up on average 3 times per night, and I would nurse her back to sleep each time. I am so thankful that she's never had a problem with going back to sleep! So, over the past 1 1/2 weeks I have toughed it out and let her cry in the middle of the night. The first few nights I let her cry as long as I could stand it, which was about half an hour each time. After letting her cry for half an hour, I would nurse her back to sleep. Finally, Sunday night we had break through! Both Brian and I were able to fall asleep even though Ruby started crying in the middle of the night. Putting a pillow over my head was the best trick I found. :) That night she cried for a little while then went back to sleep at some point. Didn't wake back up until 7am. I was so excited the next morning, it worked! Then the next two nights went the exact, and last night was even better... she never even cried! She slept straight from 8pm - 7:30am. Victory!

My biggest motivation behind making her sleep more and nurse less is that I have the privilege of being a doula for 3 good friends in the next two months! That will mean lots of hours away from my girl, and I absolutely needed to make these changes to make it possible to be a doula. I am so blessed that Ruby is catching on quickly, and that I will be able to be an encouragement to my friends as they deliver their babies. The first one, Tara, is due any minute now and I am pumped!
*Feeling high on life*

Thank you for reading!