Week two of weaning the human pacifier

In the past two weeks I've seen some very moderate changes in Annika's sleeping habits. She will now, for the most part, accept being popped off the breast so that I can get up once she's asleep. She is still only sleeping an hour to an hour and a half without waking up and crying out for me, but it is an improvement. This has given me some much needed time to myself. Because of this, my head is becoming uncluttered and I am feeling like a much nicer person.

In addition to the benefits to myself, Annika also seems to be benefiting from the extra rest.

She also seems to be sleeping a little harder and deeper than she was before. In the past, I was a bit concerned that because of the suckling, she wasn't actually falling into a deep sleep and therefore, not getting the rest she truly needed.

She has been saying and doing things in the past couple of weeks that she hasn't before. Naturally, because of her age, it could be simply a coincidence, but I have my doubts about that.

She is now saying a whole list of new words, mama, cat, car, truck, seriously. Seriously, she said, seriously. She was repeating what Toyin said while he was joking around with her. Only it sounded more like, "seessly?"

After months of calling all animals woof woof, or go-go, her word for dog, she is now saying cat, and pointing at pictures of them and saying meow. In the past two weeks she has started pointing out her head, belly and feet. She can distinguish between her toes and feet. She is starting to shake her head "no" when she doesn't want something. She has started using a fork. She is very interested in how cups work, although, she still mostly just pours water onto the floor and herself, she can drink from a regular cup.

This morning, I watched her as she took a cup, filled it with water, drank some and then pulled it away from herself and poured the water down her front. It was no accident. She was examining how the liquid drained from the cup.

Also, she has been saying up, for a while now, but now it seems more definite. Like she really understands what the word means. She puts her arms up and says firmly, "UP."

There have also been a couple of times she has woken up and gone back to sleep without nursing. She just snuggled up next to me and fell back asleep. For the most part, she is still nursing when she wakes at night, which is still at least three or four times a night. I'm not really sure how much she is waking up at night since I am starting to sleep through a lot of it, or at least, I'm not being fully awakened, as I was before.

The progress is slow-going, but it's nice. And other than the first couple of nights, there has not been any major drama. Earlier this week I went to the library to get some work done and Toyin put her to sleep. He was able to get her to sleep and put her down in bed, something he has not been able to do since she was very tiny.

So, folks, we have progress. I read somewhere that it takes six weeks to change a habit and get a new routine started. I will update along the way. Happy trails.