New Routine

Last week I was nursing Livi and she bit me so hard that it brought tears to my eyes. I was hoping it was a one time thing, but the next time I fed her she did it again, and again and again. I couldn't bring myself to flick her in the mouth (what everyone told me to do). So after talking with my mom and her doctor I decided to wean her....sad day. The only problem with this is that she will not take a bottle or drink out of a sippy cup. My dr told me that she will not dehydrate herself and to keep offering her a sippy cup and eventually she would get hungry enough to drink from it. Well by the end of the first day she had only drank about 2 ounces from the cup and my boobs were going to explode. It hurt to walk. I had every intention of sticking it out. But she is still sick, in fact the dr says she now has an ear infection and so she is on an antibiotic.  She was/is so miserable that I decided now was not a good time to wean her.  So I braced myself, started nursing her and....she didn't bite me! And I'm happy to report that she hasn't bit me since! I guess she felt the threat of no more boobie juice.  I'm no longer engorged beyond belief and she is no longer hungry. 

I'm also trying to undo the bad habit of letting her nurse to sleep. It has it's good points: It's so easy to get her to sleep that way, and I enjoy the cuddling and I'm sure she finds it comforting as well. But the negative aspects are: Phil can't put her to sleep, she has to be dead asleep when you put her down or she will wake up, if she wakes up in the night she won't go back to sleep unless I nurse her. So for the past few days we have been trying to retrain her. We lay her down, let her cry for 10 minutes, go in and comfort her, lay her down, and repeat the process. The first few days were amazing, she would put herself to sleep in about 10 minutes! But last night and her morning nap today were rough.  I had to go in and comfort her 3 times and it ended up taking about 45 minutes for her to go to sleep. She has been asleep for almost 3 hours because she cried so much and just wore herself out. Poor thing. It kills me to walk away when she is crying. But I have already noticed a HUGE difference, especially at night. She hasn't woke up during the night since we started. And that in itself is worth it.  It will be interesting to see how things go with a second child