I know it has been food week here, but I am breaking that to end with a quick talk (call for support?) on sleep and the mama being away.
Let me preface with an overview of our sleep sitch; we sleepshare. (co sleep, whatever. H sleeps in our bed.) He is nowhere near sleeping through the night, but we are not too fussed with it and have no desire to sleep train any time soon. Sometimes a gentle rock puts him right back to sleep, sometimes he wants to nurse. Especially because I am away from him at work so much during the day, I look at this as a time for us to (albeit half asleep) bond and be together.
Enter some situations where I might be away for a night (or few). With this project on the horizon, I might be doing a bit of travelling next year. H and Ben will come along for some of it, but to come for all of it would be a bit much on the little guy. (And potentially pricey buying extra plane tickets.) Ben is a stellar hands on Dad, and is completely up to the task of being at home with the little man. But we are all a little nervous about the nights, since Ben simply can't offer what I can. He can have a bottle ready, sure. But it isn't quite the same, I don't think.
So I am curious. How old where your little ones when you were comfortable being away for the night? Those of you who let baby wean on their own, how old were they? A lot of this travel happens next summer, and he will be over a year old. Maybe I shouldn't even be sweating it, it is so far away? Thoughts and your own experiences would be sooooo welcome!
And, have a great weekend dudes! We are having a bonus day off together all 3 of us. A scene identical to the one above is happening *right now* and I have been able to get so much done! Yeah!
I had a lot of fun traveling with Dax this past summer. Gotta get that travel in with the babes before they turn 2 and require their own ticket! Anyway, it wasn't really that hard on Dax. He was totally thrilled to be seeing new places and people.
ReplyDeleteI have no advice regarding the nights away though, sorry. We're still in the same boat at 16 months.
We co-slept and night-nursed for well over a year. When my daughter was almost a year old, my husband took her for three days to visit his family (he's a SAHD, I work). He brought pumped milk and gave her a bottle before settling down to sleep, she woke a couple of times during the night but he was able to sooth her back to sleep both nights without any major boob-withdrawal issues. I was really worried it wouldn't go well for them but I think it was easier because she was used to sleeping with him already and sensed that I (aka "the boobs") weren't around.
ReplyDeletei would assume there's a pretty good chance he'll be sleeping through the night by next summer. also, months 2-3 cheech was waking up every 2 hours through the night and it was exhausting! i had read on the dr. sears site that, typically, dad's (or partners), tend to have a much easier time soothing babies back to sleep than mom's because they *aren't* the food source. so, like sid said, they know not to expect what they're not going to get since it's not around. if that makes sense. anyway, i don't know if it works for other babies, but we put his theory to the test and it totally worked. i was shocked! seeing as cheech is a formula baby, i really didn't think it would make a difference for us, but it did. i can't tell you how many times i've tried to rock her back to sleep with no success, gotten up to prepare a bottle, and come back to a snoring baby because joe can get her to fall back asleep with barely any effort.
ReplyDeletei guess what i'm trying to say is that i have a feeling he'll do quite well. if anything, he might miss your scent, so maybe think of leaving an article of clothing for them to go to bed with? since i go to bed much later than cheech, i usually lay my pajamas next to her in bed and it really helps her sleep without me (or one of us) there.