Night weaning.

• Night 1: Daddy laid with you in bed starting at 1am. 2:30am you were finally asleep after much whispering to yourself. 2:30 he finally fell asleep.  You woke up at 4am and crawled into bed with me. At first you just let me cuddle you back to sleep. Lailah fell out of bed around 5am and when she came into bed with us you woke up. You latched on very quickly so I said ten seconds and you handled that ok. Then around 6am daddy's alarm went off and I got up to use the bathroom and you woke up again. You cried a bit until I got back into bed. At this point, I don't even remember if you nursed or not... I must have been half asleep. I was just woken up by you nursing. I don't remember you latching on and I have no idea how long you've been there. But I woke up because I was getting uncomfortable and wanted you to unlatch. 

• Night 2: Daddy laid with you in bed starting around 12am. You fell asleep around 1:30am. You woke up around 3:45am and came into bed with me. You cuddled then fell back asleep. At around 5am you woke up, nursed a bit, went back to sleep.

• Night 3: Mommy laid down and nursed you at around 10pm, you fell asleep. You semi-woke up crying around 11:30, then 12 and went back to sleep on your own. At around 1 you woke up and came into bed with us, we were still awake. You stayed up. Daddy put you back into bed around 2:15am.

• Night 4: We went up to a hotel for Lailah's cheer competition. We went to bed around 10:30pm or so. You nursed for 15 seconds and then went to sleep. You slept the night. 

• Night 5: Daddy put you to bed around 2am, you woke up around 3am, we cuddled and you went back to sleep. I don't remember past there.

• Night 6: You wanted to eat my ice cream around 2am. I told you that if you ate it you were going to bed in your own bed that night. You said ok. You cried some but daddy tucked you in. You got up a few times to jump around and kiss me and daddy multiple times but then you crawled back into bed. Daddy told you he was proud of you. You fell asleep. Around 3am daddy and I went in the shower, you woke up and came in. Afterwards you nursed for a couple mins then you wanted me to tuck you in. I tucked you into your own bed and you peacefully went to sleep. Around 5am you woke up crying and upset. I told you we would cuddle but not nurse. You cried. I told you to go lay in your own bed then. You did and cried for a couple mins. I got up to use the bathroom, you came back into our bed. When I got back, you said we could just cuddle. We cuddled and you fell back asleep. 

• Night 7: Around 12 midnight you fell asleep on your own. You woke up around 1 when daddy tried to move you into your own bed, cranky and crying, you used the bathroom, daddy held you and calmed you down and then you laid back down in your bed. You went back to sleep right away with a little back rub. You woke up again around 3:30am and  nursed you until you fell asleep. But then you woke up again around 4am and cried a bit, nursed, then went back to sleep. 
• Night 8: I gave you a 1 min nursing limit and then you transferred to your own bed very easily at 2am. You woke up around an hour later and fussed some. You then came into bed with daddy and I and you went right back to sleep with some cuddling. You then slept through the night until around 11am when you nursed again. 

Toddler test answers

TODDLER TEST (Age 2 years 10.5 months)

No coaching them, just ask and write the response down:

•What is your name? Noel

•How old are you? two! I'm five. Four, four *runs away* ahhhh!!

•How old am I? Uh, two.

•What is your favorite color? Um, red and blue. red and blue and black and uhhh and orange! like that.

•What is your favorite food? ummm cake!!

•Who is your best friend? umm idk... yep, it's Elmo!

•What is your favorite TV show? umm Star wars!

•What is your favorite movie? ummm idk.

•What is your favorite song? like this, lalalala! like that.

•What is your favorite animal? Umm elephant!

•What are you scared of? Lions. I'm scared of lions.

•What makes you happy? Elephants! Elephant make me happy!!

•Where is your favorite place to go? um McDonalds (we never go to mcdonald lmaoo)

•What do you want to be when you grow up? A giant!!!

•What does love mean? Love you!

Closing in on age 3.

Dear Noel,
You are closing in on age 3 as you are not 2.75. I have a feeling that 3 is going to be more difficult than 2 has been with you. You are very strong minded and you stay firm in your thoughts. You get offended easily and you've started spitting (raspberries) at people whenever you feel upset in the slightest. When you get upset you get really really upset, you yell, kick, scream, hit, punch, kick, throw things, and you're relentless. I'm sure it's because of your age and brain development, your prefrontal cortex is not yet developed enough for impulse control or emotional regulation.
Recently you're been jumping on me often and hitting me. I think it's because we've been cutting down nursing sessions. I have been starting to feel completely exhausted and touched out because you were wanting to nurse literally every 5-10 mins all day and all night long. It just wasn't working out for my mental or emotional health. It's stressful nursing a toddler lol.
You've started going to sleep at night with your sister in her bed and then after a few hours you crawl into my bed but we don't nurse at night anymore, you know that nursing resumes when the sun comes up and no longer when it's dark out. Sometimes you protest and other times you're ok with just cuddling.

You're still an incredible little human and I am so happy to have you in my life. Lately, you've been asking daddy and I for a baby sister. You say you will share your milkies. <3 So sweet.
You had your face painted for the first time the other day and you loved it. You chose the unicorn face painting. You kept staring at yourself in the mirror lol you loved it so much! Oh and you also want to be tinkerbell for halloween. :) Whatever makes you happy. :)

2.5 years old!!

Dear Noel,
You are 2.5 years old. You have the most interesting and fascinating personality I've ever known lol. You seem to get offended easily - you don't like when someone tries to help you, giggles because they think you're cute, laughs around you and you don't know why, etc. You get extremely bashful when you're complimented. You look down, smile bashfully, and say thank you. It is the sweetest thing lol.

You are also so so so intelligent. You pick up on things so quickly. You can count to 11 on your own, you pretty much know all your colors even though you mix some up sometimes, you know all the basic shapes, and you are super athletic and high energy lol. Whenever someone calls you a toddler or says you're hungry etc you tell them, "No, I'm Noel." haha. It's adorable.
We went to the beach a couple days ago and you absolutely loved it. They had a small turtle slide that went into the water and you were going down it often. You proudly announced, "I AM SO HAPPY!" lol <3

You are still breastfeeding!! I don't know that you were ever wean lol! You are obsessed with milkies and you tell me and daddy that my boobs are yours haha. You are attached at my breast nearly every single waking moment. It drives me INSANE most of the time haha. I deal with it though because I know that milkies is your comfort, your safety, and your nutrition. You'll wean one day.... in your own time.

You speak extremely well for your age. You are talking in full, easily understood sentences. Everyone that meets you is shocked that you are only 2.5 because you speak so well and your thoughts are so well articulated and thought out.

You get along with your sister extremely well - you both love playing together. The only time you ever argue is when one of you is using the phone for Youtube kids or games because the other always wants to watch or take over. I have recently been trying to put the phone away so that you both can't fight and argue over it. I feel that your relationship is far more important than an electronic.





HAHA oh, and you went through a phase for a few months where you got into EVERYTHING you possibly could.






You would dump every water bottle you could find all over the floor, Parmesan cheese EVERYWHERE, cereal, diaper rash cream HAHA. Oh man, I have to post the photos. We never got mad, we understand that you're curious, learning, and growing. We just help you clean it up. We did teach you that water belongs either in your mouth/belly or in the tub and not all over the floor. Thankfully you caught onto that semi quickly and after a couple weeks you would ask to play with water in the tub instead.

You are TWO!!! Oh how time fliessss!

Dear Noel,
You have turned 2!!!! Sorry that this is a few weeks late... I have been so incredibly busy lately. You keep me on my toes and busy!! LOL

Your personality has blossomed!! You say SO many words now... I can't even count how many you know.. you learn dozens more each and every day. You are currently a little sponge that picks up on and mimics everything!! It is a lot of fun interacting with you and observing you!

You have finally started recognizing that you are your own person a month or two before your 2nd birthday!! You use terms like, me and mine. You also know your name and refer to yourself by it now too!! You no longer get mad at yourself in the mirror lol or seeing yourself on the camera. :p You say, "That's ME!! NOEL!" :D

You are so incredibly intelligent! You know some letters even! You speak better than any children I've ever known or currently know that are your age. In daycare at Mamee's you speak better and more than all of the children your age, even the ones older than you by 6 months!

We have finally hit the World Health Organization recommendation of 2 years of breastfeeding!!! I can't believe that we have made it to two years. You are addicted to your "milkies" lol. When I first gave birth to you and started this journey I had faith we would get to where we are today on our nursing journey - and here we are!! I am so proud of us and that I've been able to give you the nutritionally best start in life.

You LOVE Star Wars so much. LOL You're JUST like your daddy!! You also LOVE Daniel Tiger and Super Why the most out of all the shows you watch. But you happily watch a lot of shows with your sister that she wants to watch :).








You have an incredible personality... you NEED respect. You function SO EXTREMELY well if you are respected and feel understood. You ALWAYS make the right choice if you're allowed to make the choice for yourself on your own with polite encouragement. You hate feeling forced to do something, you hate feeling disrespected, and you hate pressure. Which is completely understandable!!

In the car we play a game where you shout, "Mommy, GOOOO" when I'm at a redlight and I say, "Red light!!" then you reply, "Green light!!!" LOL You love it haha. And you actually once told me, "Mommy GOOOO, HIT CARS!!" lmfao. I tried to explain that we can't just hit the other cars lol but you don't seem to understand or care :p.

You recognize where we are often... you know when we are at Mamee's house or our house - although you call our home "Lailah's house" LOL.
Unlike most toddlers you LOVE naps, bedtime, showers, and vegetables!!! You get extremely excited over all of those things. "night night time." "sleepies". "yayyyy bath!!". and "cahits and broccoli!" You actually can say broccoli but carrots sounds like cats sort of haha.







For Christmas we got you and your sissy a big tool table complete with tools and fake wood etc to build with. You love it!! We also got a big kitchen set complete with food and plates etc. You love that as well!! For smaller things we got you dinosaurs, and a road play mat. :) You had so much fun this Christmas and had a blast!!

20 Month update!!!

Dear Noel,
You've just reached 20 months!! You're getting tall! Although, Idk how tall lol and you're around 2 lbs. You are getting so big and your personality is blossoming incredibly. You are talking so much and saying far too many words to count. You are so smart and you know how to figure nearly everything out. You LOVE to jump as you sing, "hop hop hop!". You play pretend with your dinosaurs, blocks, pretending to eat fake food, and you can draw circles (sort of ish lol)!! You love your sister and you plays and learn with her every day. You still love mother goose club songs, you watch dinosaur music videos, your favorite shows include Sesame Street and Daniel Tiger, and you love singing along to the radio.

You are not a huge fan of other children, you rather play alone or with your sister though. You tend to hit or push other children if you feel they're invading your personal space or overstepping boundaries such as coming up to your dad or I, or trying to take a toy you're playing with. You get worked up very quickly but I'm pretty sure that's just your age - it's part of being a toddler. :)
You demand respect from everyone you are around. If people respect you you are more likely to obey to rules set or boundaries that have been set. You show understanding and patience - but ONLY if you feel respected. The moment you feel disrespected you sort of explode. You shout words like, "NO!, STOP, DON'T, LISTEN, and WON'T!" And you physically react very quickly: hitting, throwing something, knocking something down, etc. But again - that's because your prefrontal cortex hasn't began developing yet and that's necessary for emotional regulation and impulse control. You're just being a toddler and expressing your emotions in the only ways that you know how.

You are still BREASTFEEDING!!! <3 We share an incredible bond and I am so proud to know that you are getting the most amazing start in life directly from my body. All the vitamins, nutrients, calcium, antibodies, etc.... it's truly a miracle what the human body can do to support it's young. Although, we have started limiting the amount you nurse at night - mommy was losing a lot of sleep as you would wake up 6/7 times a night for milkies. I just couldn't deal. So lately before bed I've been gently explaining, "Okay so you're going to have milkies right now before bed, when you're done you are going to roll over and go to sleep okay? Then no more milkies until morning time." I should start saying "until it's light out." because I'm pretty sure you haven't been understanding what "morning" is. It's all new to me and we're working on it together. You've been doing pretty well at handling it - only waking up once or twice now to nurse, which is more tolerable for me. I can't imagine us fully weaning any time soon though.



You love swimming - as long as someone is in the pool with you. It took a while for you to warm up to the whole pool idea at all but once you did you loved it!! You started jumping into the pool for others to catch you (papa and I) and you even went down a slide into the pool all on your own a few times! LOL You weren't too fond of it yet you still went down it for some reason a few times until deciding it wasn't a good idea anymore hahaa. And you love the park. The slide is your favorite!! You also really love climbing! You are a dare devil!

18 months has flown by!

Dear Noel,
Goodness gracious child!!! You have turned 18 months and you have surely blossomed !! You speak over 35 words! You know mama, mommy, dada, daddy, Moe, Mamee, Lailah, Sissy, Qetsi (dog), up, go, home, stuck, apple, eat, eye, play, shoes, no, car, truck, zoo, ball, hat, bite, mine, baby, eww, bath, weeee, bye bye, birdy, hi, you ask "what's that?" and "where's -- (insert name or object)", and say "let's go".
(Added on 7/3/15 - doggy, cat, why, juice, outside, please, more, Brian, RAWR, yuck, yay, sock, why, rain, water, wet, hot, nanner (banana), out, and keys) These are all the ones I remember at least :p. Within the past 3 weeks your speech has expanded insanely. :D It's so amazing listening to you talk. Although, HAHA - you say a word that sound just like "cock" and we have NO idea what it is you're trying to say. You say every other word when you see it or when you need to tell us something you want or or want to do - but this word you just say it all the time. We have NO idea what it is besides hilarious lmao. <3




You can jump REALLY well now, you can climb and go down slides all on your own as well, and you make this gargling sound when you're attempting to tickle someone lol it's adorable "igle igle igle igle igle". LOL too cute.

We are still breastfeeding! We've made it to 18 months. :) You are getting an incredible amount of nutrients and antibodies from my breastmilk which is helping to develop your brain more and faster than other non breastfed babies and keep you healthy and strong! I am so proud of our journey and I'm going to be sad when it one day ends. But for now I will savor you being my little baby and our bonding and closeness that nursing brings to us.

You are quite the explorer!! You LOVE to be independent and walk around by yourself - at the zoo I let you lead us around and we follow closely behind. You run over to the next animal exhibit and you even climb up onto the fence and look into the animal exhibit and exclaim your "ohhhs" and "ahhhs" lol. You are not a child of fear at all. And at the mall you loveeeee the escalators and you proudly step on them as you hold either daddy or my hand. You are so courageous and curious. Not quite to a fault and hopefully it'll never come to that, but to a deeper level than I believe other children your age are.


Oh and a couple weekends ago we went to this event in Providence called "Discover the Dinosaurs", they had lifelike robotic dinosaurs and plastic dinosaurs, and a sand pit where you could uncover dinosaur bones.

 You had a BLAST! !! You absolutely loved it. You ran back and forth from dinosaur to dinosaur rawring! And you played in the sand pit for at least an hour!! You were running around in circles pointing, giggling, and giving your best rawrs!!!! You had so much fun. It was definitely an amazing weekend for our whole family.

You recently had your first dentist appointment too! So many new things. You have 16 teeth!!!! You did so well. You were very curious and didn't want to wear the bib they put on you but you did well with the dentist and you didn't cry or seem afraid at all. :)

You have definitely started experiencing very large emotions and you definitely express them. You've started tantruming and getting all those very big emotions out. Sometimes you hit but daddy and I set firm limits on hitting - we don't let you hit us. Otherwise you accept hugs and mommy milkies if you're having a really hard time. Already, I've noticed that you have a very strong personality and you really like for daddy or I to reach out to you - rather than for you to come to us. We will do our best to always reach out and be here for you - to be your rock through every single tough or difficult time that you have. Please always let us in and be there for you. <3 You are so important to us and you always will be.

I love you Noel <3 Love, mommy :)