Check the Bubbie-Light
Julie Kientz Elting
Kaneohe HI, USA
From: NEW BEGINNINGS, Vol. 17 No. 6, November-December 2000, p. 209
We provide articles from our publications from previous years
for reference for our Leaders and members. Readers are cautioned to
remember that research and medical information change over time.
When my youngest son, Russell,
was two years old, he still nursed a couple of times at night. Unfortunately,
as the months passed, I had gradually become unable to fall back to
sleep after nursing and sometimes I was awake for hours afterward. It
became increasingly evident to me that I needed to start getting better
quality sleep if I was to continue being a loving and motivated mother.
This meant establishing some limits for nursing at night.
There was one problem. The
technique I had used to wean my other two children at night wasn't going
to work. When I had begun to limit their nursing at night, it was summertime
and the sun was up early. By about 5:30 am, the early morning light
would creep in through the windows. That was their signal that it was
okay to nurse. Sometimes they'd crawl over, latch on, and I wouldn't
even wake up! But when I was thinking of weaning Russell at night, it
was winter and the sky stayed dark much later, sometimes until after
7 am. That was too late for early morning "bubbie" since we were already
getting up for the day.
After some difficult nights
trying to figure out what to do, my husband hit on an idea. We bought
a timer, the kind that people use to turn lights on when they are not
home (usually in the evening to deter burglars). We hooked a night-light
to it and our problem was solved. We set the timer to turn the light
on at 5:30 am and go back off at 7:00 am. Russell soon learned to check
the "bubbie-light" before latching on and no longer awakened me to nurse
him at night. We're all sleeping more peacefully now.
Last updated Friday, September 29, 2006 by njb.
Page last edited Sun Oct 14 09:29:37 UTC 2007.
