BF to sleep...bedsharing...weaning?

McKee3

I BF my LO first thing in the AM, to sleep for her nap, at bedtime and she sleeps in our bed. I hope to wean her completely by the time she's two. But, I'm wondering how she will ever loose interest if we bedshare. And, what in the world will replace BF so I can get her to sleep? Side note: DH relies on me to handle bedtime and I think he wants to keep it that way.  

Anyone else go through this type of weaning situation or something similiar without moving LO to thier own room? I love having her in our room and see no need to change that yet but, I'm curious how we'll get through weaning. Thanks for any advise.

EcoBaby

I am not there yet, but I think you will have to break the bf to sleep association. I can walk with DS to get him to sleep, and I keep hoping he'll just start going to sleep on his own (LOL!).

I'll be interested to see what works for others.

LLB430

I have to wean a little after she turns 1 and I am dreading it for many reasons but wondering about the sleep issue is my biggest concern.. Can't wait to hear what others say..

jen_and_tom

I'm in a similar situation.  I'm hoping to let her self wean, but she loves nursing at night and in the morning and I'm also not sure how we're going to break the association.  Right now, on the nights that DD doesn't nurse to sleep, which is about 90% of the time, DH rocks her and sings her to sleep.  He does the same when I'm not home with no complaints.  Also, at daycare she falls asleep on a cot with classical music and her teacher patting/rubbing her back.  So, I know that she doesn't "need" it, it's more a comfort/bonding experience for her.  I've started to lay with her in bed and pat her back, not offering the breast unless she asks for it.  She does eventually ask for it, but in time she may not...  I'm hoping to get pg again after her second bday.  Assuming I get my period back and this is possible, maybe the change in my milk then will turn her off?  If all else fails, I suppose I'm on the road to tandem nursing!  ;-)

JoyousJulia

My DS self weaned at 15 months and he was BFed right before bed every night. I actually surprised all of us. I think one thing that helped is we have a bedtime routine and so there was still a pattern of events to let him know it's time to get to sleep.

jen5-03

Around 9mo DD stopped nursing to sleep. She still wanted to nurse, but she'd finish nursing and just not be asleep. So I'd rock her for a while an eventually she'd fall asleep. At this point I realized that there's no reason for me to keep doing it all alone, and DH took over bedtime (I'm sure he would have preferred for me to "handle it" but frankly I do not think that is a fair attitude). She would sleep for several hours before waking to nurse around midnight and at that point I'd put her in bed with us (she started the evening in a crib mostly because I wasn't comfortable leaving her in my bed by herself).

Around 14mo I tried to start weaning her gently. It was very very easy to get her to drop all her other nursings except middle of the night, first thing in the morning, and naptime. The before bed nursing was replaced with a sippy of milk. After a month or so of trying, naptime nursing was replaced by a sippy of milk and back rubbing.

Middle of the night nursing, I had to resort to moving her to her own bed which I understand you don't want to do. But it went about a 1000x more smoothly than I ever imagined and was really a non-event in the end. I had to wear non-easy-access clothing to bed for a couple weeks just to prevent myself from offering to nurse out of habit while I wasn't even awake, but once again a sippy of milk made her happy (we eventually phased this out to sippy of water). The bed I moved her to was a twin mattress on the floor, so I could get in bed with her - apparently it was the crib itself that she had always hated.

First morning nursing was the hardest - DH had to get up with her and get her sippy of milk for about 2 weeks. It's still her clingiest time of day.

She was almost 17mo when she weaned completly, so it was a 3mo process for us and that was as fast as I was willing to do it.

McKee3

jen5/03:

Around 9mo DD stopped nursing to sleep. She still wanted to nurse, but she'd finish nursing and just not be asleep. So I'd rock her for a while an eventually she'd fall asleep. At this point I realized that there's no reason for me to keep doing it all alone, and DH took over bedtime (I'm sure he would have preferred for me to "handle it" but frankly I do not think that is a fair attitude). She would sleep for several hours before waking to nurse around midnight and at that point I'd put her in bed with us (she started the evening in a crib mostly because I wasn't comfortable leaving her in my bed by herself).

Around 14mo I tried to start weaning her gently. It was very very easy to get her to drop all her other nursings except middle of the night, first thing in the morning, and naptime. The before bed nursing was replaced with a sippy of milk. After a month or so of trying, naptime nursing was replaced by a sippy of milk and back rubbing.

Middle of the night nursing, I had to resort to moving her to her own bed which I understand you don't want to do. But it went about a 1000x more smoothly than I ever imagined and was really a non-event in the end. I had to wear non-easy-access clothing to bed for a couple weeks just to prevent myself from offering to nurse out of habit while I wasn't even awake, but once again a sippy of milk made her happy (we eventually phased this out to sippy of water). The bed I moved her to was a twin mattress on the floor, so I could get in bed with her - apparently it was the crib itself that she had always hated.

First morning nursing was the hardest - DH had to get up with her and get her sippy of milk for about 2 weeks. It's still her clingiest time of day.

She was almost 17mo when she weaned completly, so it was a 3mo process for us and that was as fast as I was willing to do it.

I would love to do it this way but she won't take milk from a sippy cup. I've tried every type of sippy, cold and warm milk, breastmilk, soy milk and she just looks at it and throws it down every time. I do keep trying, hoping eventually she'll take it at meal time so we can use it while weaning like you did.