Sleeping Through The Night...

So Ryan will be one year old on Sunday. That means I am done nursing! I’ve posted before how I feel about nursing…I love the benefits of it, but I really dislike the actual act of it and the inconvenience of it when the child is older. Anywhoo…my time is done! And while Ryan had pretty much given up nursing and bottles and any kind of milk that does not come from a cow 1 ½ months ago, he still gets up in the middle of the night to eat. So…in order for me to be completely done with nursing, I have to get him to sleep through the night. And this has to be John’s job as if I go in there to pat his back and get him back to sleep, he’ll just want to eat (and it’s a fair trade…1 year of waking up constantly in the middle of the night for me**, and a few nights of it for John).

So last Friday I asked John if he was ready to do this and he enthusiastically told me “yes.” Friday night wasn’t so bad…he just got up a couple of times (which unfortunately, I was awake for because what mom can sleep through her baby crying?). When he wakes up, John goes in and turns his mobile or aquarium on and covers him back up and makes sure he has his paci. We try our best not to pick him up. Saturday was about the same.

Sunday night I was holding out hope that maybe he’d go all the way through the night without waking up…of course I was wrong. At 4:00 AM he woke up and would not go back to sleep. Again, I was awake the whole time, and John tried everything. At 5:00 AM John changed his diaper and took him to the rocking chair where Ryan proceeded to giggle at him. Apparently, he thought it was time to play. John rocked him for a while and then put him back in his crib where he started screaming (thankfully, he never wakes the other kids up, which is super great). I was about to give in when John came back to bed (we did have to get up for work in an hour after all), but John held strong and within 5 minutes Ryan was sleeping again.

Monday night the same thing happened, only this time it was from 3:30 AM – 5:00 AM. But I never fed him, which is the most important thing. Tuesday night he woke up a couple of times, but easily went back to sleep. And then last night, he woke up once, supposedly (because I actually slept through the whole night and didn’t hear him cry!). I’m hoping that by this weekend we’ll have him completely sleeping through the night.

For me, this is the last of the “baby things.” It just seems like when they don’t need mommy in the middle of the night, they’re no longer babies (all three kids have not slept through the night until they were 1). I know he’s getting older (and a ton more fun each day) but it’s still sad to see my baby disappearing and this big boy taking his place…

**And that's only because it's my choosing...John has offered millions of times to get up with him and feed him, but it just didn't make sense for him to have to get up and make a bottle when it was so much easier for me to feed him.