I have a confession. Justus will be 16 months old and was still taking a bottle until yesterday. I have finally decided it's time to ween him off. Or should I say make him quit COLD TURKEY! He also still wakes up at night about every 3 hours and I gave him a bottle of milk. I know it's bad for their teeth and all that but I have done all my boys the same way and it's my fault for not breaking this sooner.
When a crying baby wakes me up at night I would give him just about anything he wanted to make him be quiet. Not to mention I am usually sleep walking. So it's time to break the bad habits and create some new ones.....SLEEPING! I am so tired of being tired. Every morning I wake up feeling exhausted like I didn't sleep at all the night before. One hour here and one hour there isn't REAL sleep. And since we know this is our last one I am ready to move on to the next phase in my life and that includes getting a full nights rest.
Our oldest son Jacob is 9 and I don't think I've slept a full 8 hours in 9 years. Of course my husband does get up with them sometimes too but being a light sleeper I hear every little noise and cannot just lay there and listen to my baby cry. So I have done everything imaginable to get them to sleep. I've slept in the recliner more times than I can count with a baby on my chest because that was his favorite place to be. I've put them in the bed with me against all the rules because that's what felt natural and most comfortable for us. I've gotten in the bed with them so we wouldn't wake up daddy. I've slept sitting up in a rocking chair while nursing. I've fallen asleep in the floor of his room. I've walked laps through the house singing and praying for him to sleep. Through the last nine years I've done what I had to do to help my baby's feel loved and comfortable.
Now it's my turn! I need to be able to think clearly and focus on what needs to be done each day like homeschooling, laundry, dishes, dinner, baths, checkbook and being a wife. So last night Justus got his last bottle. I washed them all and bagged them up for our next yard sale. I resisted the urge to give him a bottle all night last night. He got milk in a sippy cup this morning and he didn't really drinking all of it.
So here we go again tonight. I hope it goes better and more quietly than the last.
