It took Willow 90 minutes to fall asleep. She is used to waking up every morning, nursing, playing like a pro, nursing for a second time, and then taking a nap out of pure exhaustion. Now that I'm trying to restrain from that mid-morning nursing session, nap time has been terrible. I know she's tired, she knows she's tired, but she refuses to cooperate. So, she plays in her crib. I hear her crawling around, playing with her sleep toys, standing at the railing screaming for me, playing some more, crying a little, laughing a little, jumping a lot. And on and on it goes. This morning it was extending so long (this going to sleep process), so I went in a couple times to hold her and sing a song. That didn't help. So I destained the carpet. Something I've been meaning to do forever. I keep putting it off because I have to make my own remover, and somehow that seems like a lot of work. But it's not.
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Homemade Stain Remover
1 Tbsp of clear dish washing soap
1 Tbsp of vinegar
2 C. of warm water
Mix the solution and then use it to scrub out the carpet stains. Use a white cloth with the vinegar solution to blot out the stains, then use cold water to sponge out the solution.
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I removed about fifty little stains while waiting for Willow to fall asleep. We get so many stains on our small 2x3 meter carpeting because when we have students or friends over we have to eat in the living room (our table only seats four, and it's usually where the food is set out). Plus, since Willow arrived, she stains have multiplied ten-fold. Her sippy cups spill on the carpet almost daily. I don't know WHY since they are supposed to be spill proof.
Anyway, does anyone have any tips for weaning a baby? I've read all there is to read. I know she's ready to start the process. She just resists her naps so much now. "If I don't need breastmilk, I don't need naps" is her new motto.
My Korean Grandmother used to tell the story of how she weaned my dad. It used to be that babies nursed for extended amounts of time in Korea. I'm not sure if they still do that, but I know that extended nursing is very popular across the world, and used to be more popular in America (once upon a time). Now, people are shocked if you're still nursing after 6 months, since all the popular baby books says that's when the 'nutrients' stop. Without getting into that issue and all that it implies, my dad nursed until he was around three years old (according to my Grandma). South Korea is a small country, and it was still recovering from war--so nursing as long as possible was practical. Cows, therefore milk, were just uncommon.
The only way she could get him to stop was by taping her nipples with red electrical tap. My dad, with his "little emperor's" complex that is so common in boys of Asian families, used to just walk up to my Grandma and lift her shirt when he wanted to nurse. When he saw the big red x's, he was so traumatized that he was instantly weaned.
Ok, maybe I've exaggerated parts, and my dad is thinking, "What in the heck?!"
But I promise, that's what Harmonee told me on several occasions.
For Maddy, we just stopped one feeding a week and transferred to a cup of milk instead. We got rid of the feedings that she was least addicted to and then went from there. We also tried putting chocolate in her milk periodically, per doctors recommendation, to help her prefer that.
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