A sleeping solution…

January 23, 2008 Savvy Spoonie 1 Comment

Thank you all for your support, commiseration, and advice! I think I may have hit upon a solution to my nighttime nursing sleeplessness.

Ellen sent me an article about co-sleeping that turned out to be very helpful, though not because of the advice in offered in ending night nursing.

The doctor in the article reinforced my belief that co-sleeping and night nursing is good. He also used a phrase that inspired me; “I love the family bed, child-led weaning and cuddling all through the first, second, third year or more if it’s working well and if the family is doing well.”

It was the word cuddling. Every night, Otter has been trying to get closer and closer to me, and I have been pushing him back to the middle of the bed so I can get some sleep.

Last night, I tried cuddling. When I came into bed, Otter woke up and began to protest as usual. Instead of nursing him and pushing him over, I simply snuggled him up to me and closed my eyes. He talked a little, wiggled a bit, and then fell asleep.

All night long, whenever he woke to nurse, I would nurse him, and then cuddle up to him to sleep.

We slept a lot. In fact, we slept an hour later than normal. Instead of being patted and petted and smacked and yanked on all night, I was cuddled around a soft fuzzy baby head, and sleeping. He was warm and cozy, and apparently contented with the new arrangement.

I feel great! Not only did I get to sleep last night, but it was painless, and snuggly, and fun. The article helped me remember that I love co-sleeping because it’s warm and cuddly, not because it’s the best sleep of my life. I had forgotten to snuggle the baby. I hope my pro active approach to nighttime snuggles will continue to sooth the wakeful baby, and increase the amount of time I get to sleep.

Baby Food

The best snack since Mum mums…

January 22, 2008 Savvy Spoonie Leave a comment

I went to Costco yesterday and stumbled across these fantastic all natural fruit crisps.

I thought I would give them a try, primarily because they are 100% fruit, and nothing else. These snacks don’t have anything added to them, they are just freeze-dried fruit, so I know I can feed them to my family without adding to their sugar intake.

Otter loves them. They have the crispiness and consistency of his Mum Mums, but they have a rich flavor, so he gobbles them up. He can hold them all by himself, and loves to chomp away on them. Yesterday he ate the freeze-dried equivalent of three apples and one pear. (It was the first day of the crisp experiment, I think I will limit his intake a bit more today.)

Monkey loves them, and they are a great crunchy alternative to chips. They also fit into the car, or the diaper bag, or a backpack as an emergency snack, since they require no refrigeration.

Lee and I even love them, and find them a healthy alternative to our junkie snack foods. Mmmm… hopefully they will help me get the last of the baby weight off by satisfying my sweet tooth!

Anyway, El Bebe is asking for more freeze-dried apple crisp, so I should go. Have a good Tuesday!

Otter

The NSBBM movement…

January 21, 2008 Savvy Spoonie 6 Comments

Otter is a big baby activist. He has spoken out on behalf of the No Down Babies movement, the No More Bottles movement, the Hell No Mom Can’t Go movement, and the Anti-Baby Containment Devices movement. Frankly it has gotten challenging to keep up with all his political activities. (We do like to encourage a healthy interest in activism in this house, so we try.)

His latest cause is the No Separation Between Baby and Mommy movement (NSBBM). He is no longer contented with mere co-sleeping and night nursing. Now he has moved on to night snuggling. While I am more than pleased to snuggle the young man, I am a little upset that he will not stay asleep, unless he is snuggling me.

It starts about 4 or 5 a.m. (A time of night I prefer not acknowledge the existence of, but sadly am getting to know very intimately.)

Otter will stick his arms and legs straight out in front of him and roll toward me, making “eh eh eh” sounds while he searches for “the boob”. He will not deign to open his eyes. Once his hungry mouth has found it’s target, he will nurse contentedly until he falls back asleep.

At this point I will carefully remove him from my breast by pulling slightly away from him. This is when I used to be able to go back to sleep. Now however, this activity is met with opposition and strident protest.
“Eh eh eh” goes the baby, as he wiggles closer in an attempt to find “the boob” again. If it is not found soon, the “eh eh eh” will increase in volume until he is awake and crying, so I will capitulate, and offer it again, in the hopes of being able to go back to sleep sometime before 6 a.m. He will nurse for a few seconds and fall back asleep. That is, of course, until I try to extricate him from “the boob” once again.

Rinse, repeat.

If I am successful in removing him from the breast, he will snuggle up right next to me to sleep. This is nice, it is wonderful, except if I move at all, he will wake up. Also, I am usually right on the edge of the bed at this point, clinging for all I am worth to the mattress, having scooted over slightly each time I have removed him from my breast. (He also takes up a surprisingly large amount of bed real estate for such a tiny person.)

If I scoot him over, he will wake up.

If I move over to the other side of the bed, he will wake up.

If I get up, he will wake up.

It is too early to be up!! I want to sleep!

Argh!! I never thought I would be complaining about my children’s desire to snuggle, but I really want to jump up and down, stomp my feet, and scream “STOP TOUCHING ME!!”

I love co-sleeping, but I have to be able to sleep. It’s not called co-snuggling, or co-waking.

Any ideas of how I can continue to co-sleep, and yet still curb his increasing need to be my own personal fungus?