The Alarm

The past 4 nights, I have cut out Kate's 10pm feeding. A week ago, I would nurse her before we went to bed, and then she would wake up again anytime between 2 and 5am for another night feeding. I decided to try having her sleep through her 10pm feeding and see what happened. I was expecting her to wake up around 12 or 1am to nurse, but to my very pleasant surprise, the first night of no 10pm feeding she slept from 6:30pm to 6:30am! I was not expecting that at all, so of course, despite the great sleep Kate was getting, I spent much of the night listening for her, checking on her, and wondering when she was going to wake up. It was great that she slept so long, but at the same time, she skipped 2 feedings. Now, any nursing mother will tell you, that suddenly missing 2 feedings is, well, really painful!! By morning, I was about ready to wake her up just so she would nurse and relieve some of the pain!

Anyway, thrilled that Kate slept so well the first night, I was a bit skeptical about the 2ND night, thinking night #1 was a fluke of some sort. But, low and behold, Kate slept until 5:45 the 2ND night, and 6:30 again the 3rd night! Yay Kate! My body was adjusting to this new nursing schedule and sleeping schedule (finally all 3 kids were sleeping mostly through the night!!). Until last night....

We keep a clock/noise maker in the kids' room to help them sleep and not wake each other up- plus we have a little apartment, so we don't want to wake them up either! Anyway, last night I was sleeping great, until Kate wakes up at 1:45am. Words can not describe my disappointment. Going into night 4, I was thinking it would be like the previous 3 nights. I go into the kids' room to find the alarm blaring! I am taking a wild guess that the culprit was a little 2 year old of mine.... I fumbled around in the dark, trying to turn it off as quickly as possible. I finally get it off and back to the usual "wind" sound the kids are used to and rush over to calm Kate down, praying she will go back down after putting her plug back in. Nope. 30 minutes later, after getting in and out of bed multiple times, many whispered words of anger and frustration, I am sitting on the couch nursing her. Ugh. Defeated. I was so mad that if it weren't for that stupid alarm, Kate would have slept peacefully until 6am.

I am afraid now, that after one night of a midnight feeding, she is going to want it again tonight. I am praying that last night was just an off night and that tonight will go just as smoothly as the first 3 nights. I am hoping really hoping that's all it was...