In which Blaise goes to a conference and Rebekah night weans Cherry

Officially Blaise's position here in France is through the University of Nancy, though we are living just outside Paris. Occasionally that means that he has to go to Nancy for conferences or workshops of some kind. This week he's spending 3 days (from Tuesday evening through lunch on Friday) in Nancy, talking about the history and philosophy of mathematics with a bunch of other historians and philosophers of mathematics.

I decided that since he's gone, it would be a good time to night wean Cherry, who is really absurdly old to still think she needs to nurse 3 times a night. With Sapphire this was very easy. In fact, she reminded me in the middle of the night that she wasn't supposed to get mama milk until morning. With Ezio it was awful. He screamed and hit me for 2 hours before he finally gave up and went back to sleep. Personality wise, Cherry is closer to Ezio than she is to Sapphire, and so I'd been putting off the business of night weaning for as long as I could. I simply wasn't up for 2 hours of screaming, especially in an apartment.

You may be wondering why on earth Blaise's absence would be a good time to night wean. Well, the answer is really quite simple. We have only 2 bedrooms, and all 3 kids are typically in the same bedroom. You can probably imagine how Cherry screaming for 2 hours a mere 18 inches from Sapphire's head would turn out. With Blaise gone, I was able to move the big kids into our bed temporarily, and I slept in their bed with Cherry. I figured that if she woke up and screamed I would at least be able to shut the doors between the two rooms (and hope the people in the apartments above and below us were sound sleepers) and I would be less tempted to give in to the shrieking.

Unfortunately, Cherry (uncharacteristically) took a nap yesterday afternoon, and so it wasn't until nearly 10 pm that she finally fell asleep. I followed soon after in anticipation of losing much sleep to screaming. Sapphire woke me at 4 because she needed a drink, and I was surprised to realize that Cherry hadn't woken at all yet. She finally woke for the first time around 4:30, and whimpered about needing mama milk for 10 minutes before falling asleep with her head on my shoulder. She was up for the day around 6:30, at which point she got her coveted mama milk.

Sapphire and Ezio were also up around 6:30, complaining of headaches and sore throats, coughing, and running fevers. I'm guessing they have flu, though we'll see what the next 24 hours brings. In any case, they won't be going to school tomorrow (no school today because it's Wednesday). Fortunately, there is no school next week or much of the following week because of the Toussaint (All Saint's Day) holidays, so a likely worst case scenario is that they'll miss two days of school.