An update from Dad

I (Brian) haven't written in a while, so I thought I would piggy-back on top of Cara's recent post about language.

Life in our house has been exciting lately. With Maia's new cognitive skills and her ever-increasing agility, we have really gotten to enjoy participating in activities with her. Although it can be challenging at times -- Maia climbs and squeezes her way into all sorts of places now -- she is developing into a real person with real emotions.

During the week, I often get up and go to work before she wakes up. Sometimes, she wakes up before I leave and I help out with breakfast or changing. I try to get home before 5:00 and spend the rest of the evening with Cara and Maia. On evenings when Cara works, Maia and I usually take a bike ride to the book store or to the park. Monday nights, we have swimming lessons.

I help get Maia to bed by 8:00 or 8:30, help straighten up the house (we cook all dinners from scratch), and it is back to work for me. I have a laptop and work has been demanding lately, so when Maia sleeps, I work.

Weekends are very similar to the weekday pattern, but I don't work as much and I spend more time with Cara and Maia. We usually see at least one set of friends every weekend and get downtown at least twice.

Something that is different lately is our attempt at night weaning. Cara and I have realized that our interrupted nights of sleep for the past 18 months have started to wear us down. We are often more tired than we should be. Because of this, we have decided to night wean. Night weaning is the process of weaning for night time only. Maia will still continue to nurse during the day.

We have only been doing this for two nights lately, but this exercise really shows how developed Maia's emotions have become. I see many emotions ranging from happiness to closeness to anger. She is not used to being denied "Mama Milk" so this has been confusing for her. In the last two nights, we have spent at least an hour each night calmly explaining to her that milk is for the day time, and it is time to go "night night". Eventually, she understands and goes back to sleep.

We are using a modified version of Jay Gordon's method for night weaning. The idea is that you never let the child "cry it out", but instead talk with her and do your best to let her know that you are there for her... just not for milk. It will be some time before we know for sure how this method works, but it seems to be a rather humane way of going about it.

Cara and I went in to this knowing what was in store for us, so our attitudes (thus far) have been very positive, even when we are pining for sleep.