Little Miss Independent

Sunday, June 3rd, marked the day that Alexa became little miss independent. What I mean by that is Saturday Night, June 2 we had our usual routine of bath, story, nurse, bed. At 11, our usual routine of her hour wakenings began (or so it seemed) ~ for those of you who don't know, for the last 2 months Alexa has been going down great for bed and then at 11 wakes up every hour pretty much on the dot until around 4 0r 5 and then goes back to sleep for a good couple of hours. It has been quite exhausting. The only thing to settle her most of the time is nursing, if we let her cry too long then I am completely exhausted and having two other children and a daycare to run, there is no option of napping... so we would give in and nurse so that we could get sleep. Anyways, back to the story... so she had her regular nurse at 11 and then we all went back to bed. We didn't hear a peep until 6:30 (very unusual). At that time I got up and tried to nurse her, she gave me the strangest look, gave me a flick (sorry maybe too much info :) ) and then started screaming, I tried a few more times and she proceeded to do the same thing. Steve came and took over and she was so happy. Throughout the day I offered her my milk at her usual nursing times and she did the same thing. Wow! This was so weird. That night we put her to bed without a nursing and did not hear a peep from her until 6:30. I could not believe it. on Monday I tried a couple more times to nurse her and she did the same thing again. Today marks day 4 of no nursing, and she has slept through the night (11-12 hours) for the last 3. This has been an answered prayer just not the way we anticipated. My goal was to wean Alexa before Steve leaves for the Ukraine in July. I also wanted her to sleep through the night with as little crying as possible. And yes, this is what has happened. The only downfall is that it happened in one day. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the weaning process, this is the least recommended way as it causes extreme engorgement, flu like symptoms, extreme emotional/hormonal fluctuations and possible mastitis. Thanks to my friends (Jen, Cristy and Marie,) I have been able to get through these difficulties with much pain rather than extreme pain. Thank you for your help ladies. I am still a little sore and a little emotional but getting better. Thank you Steve for sticking by me, loving me, and helping with Alexa, you are awesome. Thank you God for answering my prayers. Your way not ours.
And so now, I have 3 beautiful independent children that sleep through the night. HOORAY. I will miss my baby/nursing days but I look forward to what this new independence and freedom has to offer.