Plan B-Day One

A good friend who is a daycare teacher and a great mother told me to do something that sounded to me like the "supernanny" method. Where you go into the room when they wake up and tell them to sleep and put the into their bed, and if they wake again, go back in a few minutes later and put them into bed without saying a word, and keep doing that until they are asleep. This way, they will learn that they are not going to get what they want out of you which is attention. In our case, it's comfort nursing. Eleanor is pretty much attached to me all day and night which has been ok and really not much of a concern but like I said, she gets dark circles around her eyes because of poor sleep and I know I need to cut off the night nursing in order for her to sleep longer. I don't plan on weaning just yet but I don't want her to use me as a pacifier.

I really liked the sound of this method. It sure beats crying it out. I really couldn't do it and with her climbing out of the crib, we couldn't do it even if we wanted to now. The only problem and the main problem is that when she sees me come get her and I don't immediately offer her my boob, she's goes crazy. Literally!! She tears at her face repeatedly and screams. She loses her breath but there are no tears and she doesn't even open her eyes. It breaks my heart but part of my method for trying to stop the comfort nursing is to be asked for it and not offer it. Since I've started this a few days ago, she has always eventually calmed down and asked for it and I enthusiastically oblige. I just wish she wouldn't go through the hysterics beforehand.

Ok, back to the problem. Since she wants to be nursed when she sees me every time she wakes up, she screams louder and cries longer until she gets what she wants. She'll grab my shirt and demand it until I give in. So the only alternative to change this is for me to NOT go in when she wakes up. That only means that A-man needs to do this new method all night long by himself. He was a little hesitant to start but he completely understood and we started last night and it went really well. Eleanor only cried for 4 minutes which is a fraction of what she does with me plus, her cries weren't even that loud or long. She did wake up several times as normal but A-man fell asleep with her in her room all night and kept it under control. We're going to try this out for 2 weeks but with the hope that she realizes in a short few days that mommy isn't coming in so I better just sleep cuz daddy doesn't have the goods.

I told A-man that if she doesn't change in 2 weeks then we'd just go back to the way things were but I'm really keeping my fingers crossed that it'll work. She had a great night tonight hanging out with grandma and eating Korean food (which I'm beginning to think is her favorite) so I'm hoping she'll sleep well tonight.