Mama finally gets some sleep + 10 mo BFing blinkie

I put up a ten month breastfeeding blinkie.  Wow, ten months!  Crazy!  The last few months of breastfeeding have been a breeze, especially compared to the first few.  Eleanor still has her moments of not being the nicest nurser – especially when she can’t breath because of a cold, poor thing – but for the most part she knows exactly what she’s doing now and how to do it without hurting me.  Even with her seven teeth, she very rarely does something that hurts me.  The only time she comes close to biting is when she gets distracted by a sudden noise or something.  I was so worried about breastfeeding a baby with teeth, and now I’m a little surprised that more moms don’t talk about how easy it really is!  I guess that’s probably partly because few women even breastfeed this long these days, and the majority of ten month olds don’t have seven teeth.  Haha!  Hopefully a few moms out there can learn from my experience.  I always enjoy learning from other people’s successes and mistakes before embarking on my own journeys!

Last night was the best night for sleeping that we’ve had in this house in I don’t know how long.  Eleanor was up only once to eat!  She gave us a six hour stretch of sleep.  To give you an idea of how rare that is: I woke up engorged and leaking! I never leak anymore, at night or during the day, unless I’m nursing her on the other side.  I hope my body gets the chance to adjust to this.  I know it will in a few days, if Eleanor just keeps this up!

As you can probably tell I’m in a very good mood today!  A little sleep can work wonders.  : )

New blinkies, sleep woes

I put up a nine month BFing blinkie, and two Christmas blinkies.  Cutting it close to the holiday, but better late than never.  : )

Tomorrow is John’s family’s Christmas.  Woo-hoo!  I’m so excited to put Eleanor in her little outfit, and to see how she reacts to presents.  She loves paper so I have a feeling she’s going to have a ball!  We’ll be getting a workout keeping her from eating all the wrapping everywhere.

Nora has been horribly fussy for a couple weeks now, first with the cold and now she’s teething (again), and I hit a wall last night.  She wouldn’t go to sleep no matter what we did, even after giving her Tylenol, so John finally just put her in her crib with her favorite blanket.  He checked on her after five minutes of crying and calmed her down a bit, then after another five minute stint she was out like a light!  I was shocked!  She’s been screaming bloody murder for 30 minutes to an hour every single night – and that’s with me holding her and attempting to console her – and some nights has refused to sleep until past midnight.  So for her to fall asleep after just ten minutes, and at a reasonable hour, was amazing.  I’m really hoping for a repeat tonight.  I *hate* leaving her alone to cry in her crib, but I have to think it’s the lesser of two evils here.  John wants to try putting her in her crib on her own for naps too, but I think we’ll tackle that when we get home from our trip.

Sleep problems

Eleanor has never been a good sleeper, which I chalk up to my genetics: I’ve been told I “never slept” when I was a baby, and have even had a non-sleeper wished on me, haha!  But the last few nights have just been awful around here!  She seems to nap just fine – though she rarely takes more than a 45 minute nap, she goes down without too much fuss.  But when that sun goes down it’s like she’s replaced with a screaming, non-sleeping baby!  For three nights now the bedtime routine has devolved into an hour and a half crying/screaming fest, and I’m about at my wit’s end.  Tylenol and Ibuprofen don’t help, doing exactly what we do during the day does nothing.  I think I’ll try a bath or shower tonight, though in the past those have just riled her up instead of calming her down.  I’m guessing this is a developmental thing, since she spends the majority of that hour and a half attempting to crawl.  I really hope she learns to crawl soon and can settle in for sleep again.  Mommy is exhausted, and I’m sure daddy’s a zombie at work!