Comforting after weaning....

OntheWater

Good morning ladies,

We've been sailing smoothly for quite a while now, so I haven't been on much other than to post a couple of responses here and there!! I would love some thoughts from those who have weaned before though! We are at 11 months now (yeah!) and I plan to start a slow weaning process on her birthday.  I have several months worth of milk in the deep freezer, so she will continue getting bm for several months, so I am comfortable with beginning to wean from that point of view. 

As the day draws closer though, I am getting anxious! DD1 slept 12 hours a night from 3 months on, so when we ran out of BM at 14 months (I pumped for her), it was no big deal.  DD2 wakes from 2-4 times a night though. My DH has been getting up with her until 4 a.m. for the past 2 weeks when he's been home and putting her back to sleep, just to start her getting used to going back to sleep without nursing.  I find that many nights, her MOTN feedings are typically solely for comfort (now and then it is a more aggressive feeding)- if I get up with her, she fusses and fusses until I finally give her what she wants, then she snuggles down and just comfort nurses to sleep.  She puts herself to sleep at bedtime now, but can't seem to during these times.  So, once we wean, how is her transition to being soothed?  Did you rely on your DH for a while to soothe her?  My DH travels a great deal and I don't really have the benefit of him going in all the time (which makes me afraid of either 1) screaming fits in the MOTN or 2) nursing till she's 18 and off to college!).  A friend suggested having a sitter stay at the house for a couple of weeks when DH is traveling to get up with her.  Not sure I want/need to go to that extreme! My guess is that we will probably night-nurse for a while longer as I feel like that will be the hardest one to give up. How did your LO's adjust to those MOTN wakings? Any chance your LOs started sleeping better at night post-weaning?  I sometimes wonder if she doesn't have nursing to turn to, if she will not find it worthwhile to wake as often, or alternatively, if she'll completely fall apart without having nursing to turn to!

We'll find our way, just curious on experiences.... 

TIA....

BootsOrHearts

My DH seems to be the baby whisperer, he can turn LO on his side towards him and shhhh and stroke his arm and get him to go to sleep. I'm not nearly as good but I'm trying to learn his ways.

camedowncrushing

I nightweaned DD1 at 13 months.  I used the Ferber suggested method of just stretching out the time between feedings at night until there wasn't any.  For example if she typically gets up for her first MOTN feeding at midnight then you can go in and rock her, walk her, sing whatever...you just can't feed her until 1am.  Then you keep moving it until you are done.  DD1 responded terribly when we would try to send DH in.  She still wanted me for comfort.  It took a bit, but we got through it!  Good luck!