XP Night Weaning

carinamarie77

So, LO still wakes up every two hours during the night to eat and I know for sure he doesn't need the nutrition: he gets more than enough during the day and he doesn't actually eat at most night wakings, just sucks for a minute. Anyway, I think I've come up with a plan to wean him, let me know what you think.Last night, he woke up at 1AM and nursed for 10 minutes (he def ate at this time, last feed had been at 8...would have been at 10 but MH rocked him back to sleep). Tonight, I will nurse at 10PMish and have MH go in when he first wakes up (presumably at 1) and rock/soothe him back to sleep. If he's still fussing after a half an hour, I'll nurse at 1:30 for 9 min. Tmrw nite, we will stretch to 2AM, nurse for 8 min and Sunday, try for 3AM and 7 min nursing. If he's still waking up at 1 after these 3 nites, I am just going to assume he still needs the feed and try again in a few weeks. Otherwise, I will continue pushing each half hour til we're only nursing for 1 minute at 6AM. After that first nursing at 1:30 or later, I will FOD for the rest of the night but, presumably, we should be getting longer and longer stretches?What do you think? Do you see any holes in the plan? 

Brit242

Just my two cents: 

Jessica was still eating 5-6 times a night until about 2 weeks ago.  The first thing I did was to break her of nursing to sleep.  I nursed her before bed but then burped her until she woke up just a little bit and then layed her down.  After 2 nights, she fell asleep on her own and only woke up twice each night.  For me, she was waking up and couldn't put herself back to sleep.  Now that she can put herself back to sleep, she only wakes up when she's actually hungry.  During the night, I will not feed her unless it has been at least 3 hours since her last feeding (per pedi's recommendation).  So if she eats at 1:30 and then wakes up at 2:30, I go in there, pick her up, walk her a little, then lay her back down and she puts herself back to sleep without any problems.  I will do this as many times as is necessary until she reaches the 3 hour mark, then I will feed her.  So far, I have only had her wake up twice sooner than 3 hours and both times she fell right back to sleep after I picked her up and layed her back down.

If your LO is not simply using you as a pacifier, then I think your plan is fine.  But if your LO needs to learn how to put himself back to sleep, then you may want to start with that approach before trying to get rid of the feedings.  Just my advice though!  Good luck!

carinamarie77

Brit242:

Just my two cents: 

Jessica was still eating 5-6 times a night until about 2 weeks ago.  The first thing I did was to break her of nursing to sleep.  I nursed her before bed but then burped her until she woke up just a little bit and then layed her down.  After 2 nights, she fell asleep on her own and only woke up twice each night.  For me, she was waking up and couldn't put herself back to sleep.  Now that she can put herself back to sleep, she only wakes up when she's actually hungry.  During the night, I will not feed her unless it has been at least 3 hours since her last feeding (per pedi's recommendation).  So if she eats at 1:30 and then wakes up at 2:30, I go in there, pick her up, walk her a little, then lay her back down and she puts herself back to sleep without any problems.  I will do this as many times as is necessary until she reaches the 3 hour mark, then I will feed her.  So far, I have only had her wake up twice sooner than 3 hours and both times she fell right back to sleep after I picked her up and layed her back down.

If your LO is not simply using you as a pacifier, then I think your plan is fine.  But if your LO needs to learn how to put himself back to sleep, then you may want to start with that approach before trying to get rid of the feedings.  Just my advice though!  Good luck!

Thx! LO puts himself to sleep great and I do exactly as you do with nursing/burping. 

Brit242

In that case I think your plan sounds pretty good!

miz_understood

My DD is bottle fed so my situation may be sightly different. She'll lay down for the night between 6:30-8 then wake up for a feeding at 2 then every three hours after that. My doc said to wean her off her 2am feeding, since at her age she should be fine with up to 8-10hrs of sleeping without waking. So we would change her diaper and then lay her down to fall asleep on her own, amazingly she didn't put up that big of a fight about not eating.

 Again, our situations seem different.

 But your plan sounds good.  Good Luck