Ah, Sleep

I have finally discovered the secret to a good night's sleep - wean the kid!
Last week, Colby was getting pretty bad about using me as a pacifier at night. He would get up 2-3 times each night and scream until I gave him what he wanted. So I just decided that we were done. Nobody was sleeping well and Colby wasn't forming very good habits. So one day I just stopped nursing him.
To my surprise - he didn't seem to care! I thought after being so demanding and needy when it came to nursing (especially at nap and bedtime) that he would throw a huge fit, but he didn't. I waited until he was pretty tired to put him down for a nap and down he went without a bottle or a fight. The next nap time went much the same way. And then bedtime was also a breeze! I gave him one bottle when he woke up that night and he was fine with it (this is the boy who before would chuck the bottle across the room and glare at me as if I was feeding him poison if I tried that in the middle of the night).
So I decided to still pump so that I can still give him my milk and so I can wean myself down and not be in so much pain all at once. This is going great! Luckily he is having no problems with cows milk, so he gets that most of the time.
And an added bonus: the boy sleeps! Each day and each night he has done better and better with his sleep. He goes down for naps without being rocked to sleep and stays asleep for at least an hour or more (I was getting about 30 minutes before). At night, he sleeps about 8-9 hours, then wakes up. But I give him his pacifier, pat his little bum and he goes back to sleep for about 2-3 more hours. Such a HUGE difference from my needy little nursing child!
My goal was to breastfeed for his first year. Since he'll be a year next week, I think I did pretty good at reaching my goal. And everyone in the house is much happier now that we're all sleeping!!!!