Night Weaning a Co-sleeping Toddler?

PAP179

For some reason my 14 month old is back to waking up multiple times at night to nurse   He goes to sleep (nurses to sleep - which is probably part of the issue?) and then goes into his pack n play in our room until ~1-2am.  Then he nurses and ends up staying in bed with me.  When he wakes subsequently, I'd really like to try to let him fall asleep on his own but he moves all around and kind of throws himself around and it is obviously not safe since he's in our bed.  How on earth do I do this? Any suggestions? I am not opposed to him sleeping in his own space all night but I am clueless on how to do this. I've read the NCSS for Toddlers and the Pantley Pull Off just does not work for my son after the initial nursing to sleep for some reason...

MrsAmers

What happens if your husband attends to him at 1-2am?  Can he rock/paci/hold him and get him back to sleep?

At that age, my daughter was starting out the night in the crib in her room.  When she woke, my DH would go and try to get her back to sleep.  If he couldn't do it within 10-15 minutes, then I would nurse her back to sleep.  If I was rested, I would put her back in her bed after nursing.  If I was tired, she would sleep with us.  Eventually, she stopped waking, so the end result was that she slept in her crib all night.  I wonder if the same thing would work for you guys in the PnP.  Although it might work better if you slept somewhere else for a few nights so your DH is the only soothing option for the first 10-15 minutes.

Although, I will tell you that DD's nightwaking returned whenever she was teething.  And then it stopped again when the teeth came through.  So if your son is getting his eye teeth or molars, this might not be a good time to make a change.  But I bet you'll be able to tell right away, depending on how he reacts to your husband.

cateye

We night weaned starting around 17 or 18 months.  I told DD that the "tatas" went to sleep once she fell asleep.  We had a few rough nights, but for the most part, she was fine with that explanation.  I think it helped that we talked a lot about it before we started doing it and leading up to it at night before hand, too ("remember, the tatas are going to go to sleep with you, so we can't nurse any more after you go to sleep").  There are still times she insisted on nursing, especially early on, and we'd "wake-up" the tatas.  But normally I'd encourage her cuddle with me or DH would walk with her. 

We transitioned her to her own bed shortly after night weaning.  Generally, I nurse her to sleep in her bed and around 2 or 3 am she comes into our bed and cuddles with either DH or I.  I'm not sure what to tell you about the moving around. . .is your bed low down?  Could you put your LO inbetween you and DH so there is a buffer on both sides?

Angela814

When I night weaned DD, she was 26 months. I basically just told her that the mommy milks were sleeping and that she could have them in the morning. She did better with that and laying next to me than if DH would have gone in to take care of her.

I think since he's quite a bit younger, that sort of reasoning won't work well. How does he do when your DH tries to soothe him? That might be your best bet.