Night one - check!

I finally went for it. Abram is will be 17 months in a week and in two weeks we'll be leaving him with my mom and sister for a night (World Mandate and a night away. woohoo!). The problem? He still sleeps in our bed at night and is still nursing several times at night as well (they go together of course). Ive loved every second sleeping with him but the time has come to keep him in his own bed all night. So Ive been praying for grace (and mercy! if you've heard him scream then you know why) and the right time to start. So the first night of the new year, we went for it.....

God was very gracious. It was not as bad as I thought it would be. His crib is right next to my bed. He usually sleeps in there at naptime and to start the night. So it wasnt like he was in a strange place. I nursed him at bedtime and once, when he woke at 11. Then he woke around 1am and for two hours I just gave him hugs when he needed it and laid in my bed saying "its ok, mommy's here. lay down", etc. He had some water from his sippy and after 2 hours of crying, eventually fell asleep. He slept until 7am! Thank you Lord!!!!

Im going to cut back nursing in the day too. He's a feign ;) I dont want to wean, just probably cut back to before nap, before bed and maybe one other feeding in the day. He is funny - he says "milk" and he'll start making the nursing sound (if you've nursed you know it well!) and will throw himself down sideways in my lap. He is very persistant. I want him to have all the good stuff in my milk but I also want to nip that in the bud before it gets worse and embarassing in public :)

Here are some pictures of my big boy! Praying it gets easier and easier each night.

(photographers - these were taken with my 50mm f/1.4 at f/2.5, 1/250 I bumped up the ISO to 1000 instead of bouncing my flash like Ive been doing lately. He hammed it up for me, it was fun! Most of these are right out of the camera, little or no processing)







This ones a little soft on his eyes but I had to show you what he does with his tongue. He does this all the time!













(check out those lashes!!!)