If you never night weaned

ldcoffel

I have an almost 17 month old who still wakes every few hours to nurse back to sleep.
If you never night weaned, when would you say your LO started sleeping longer blocks? I thought I heard around 18 months before, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up.

tokenhoser

Sorry, 18 months is when he started nursing every 2 hours and I lost my ability to cope.

Not every baby is a nuts as mine, though.

ldcoffel

tokenhoser:

Sorry, 18 months is when he started nursing every 2 hours and I lost my ability to cope.Not every baby is a nuts as mine, though.

Boo. Mine is crazy, so that will probably be him. Has he slowed down any?

tokenhoser

I didn't answer any further because I night-weaned. At 18 months, it went pretty smoothly. I also got pregnant at that point, and there was no way I could be pregnant, working full time, AND up 3-5 x at night. Something had to give.

ldcoffel

tokenhoser:

I didn't answer any further because I night-weaned. At 18 months, it went pretty smoothly. I also got pregnant at that point, and there was no way I could be pregnant, working full time, AND up 3-5 x at night. Something had to give.

ahh, I gotcha. It is exhausting! 

boogerbearoriginal

Token - what method did you use? Do/did you bedshare? I am reaching my breaking point with nighttime nursing since it's been an every 2-3hr thing for a while now. I need longer stretches, and with bedsharing it's almost becoming more disruptive to my sleep because he is big/wild.

I am thinking we will move him to his own floor mattress in his own room but we just started daycare so I'm thinking it will be another month. Sigh. But I'm gathering info for when it eventually happens.

My LO is very attached to nursing, and I know you've talked about your LO being the same way. Just wondering how it went.

tokenhoser

My LO moved into his crib between 6 and 9 months (I started putting him there after his first wakeup, and then over time just put him there more than I slept with him), so he was used to being on his own. Most of my "method" involved giving him up to 5 minutes to go back to sleep when he cried. And, shockingly, he mostly did. We took turns going in, and in about 4 nights he just stopped waking up all the freaking time.

I do still nurse at night when he's sick or teething, but he can now get back to sleeping in a night when we stop.

theleakyboob has a good recap of doing the Jay Gordon method while bedsharing. Generally, I'd say you know when you've had enough. And when you've had enough, you'll be able to change it. 

TiffanyBerry

I had to start partial night weaning sometime around there.  She still nurses once a night at nearly 3yrs, and would totally do it more if I let her.  (She still wakes up and often asks for another turn.  But she also wakes up due to peeing in her diaper, and has for probably at least two years now.)

aglenn

tokenhoser:

Sorry, 18 months is when he started nursing every 2 hours and I lost my ability to cope.

Not every baby is a nuts as mine, though.

This was my experience as well.  DD escalated around 18 months and it was not working for me any more.  She happened to be in a bedsharing phase at the time (she was in and out of our bed over various periods for the first two years) and I just did the, "milky is going night night now, you can have milky in the morning."  She accepted that amazingly well, actually, and would just roll over and go back to sleep.  I did prep her by talking about it at bedtime, saying that it was bedtime for DD, and bedtime for mommy, and bedtime for the milky too.

ladybug122

My DD is almost 20 months now and isn't night weaned yet. She nurses to sleep so each time she wakes up she wants to nurse back to sleep (we bed share). She does sleep for longer chunks now than she did in the past (it has been as often as once an hour all night, ugh!). I think lately she's been doing a big chunk of sleep for the first part of the night and then around early morning (4:00ish) until we get up (7:00) she nurses every half hour or hour. Its been a very gradual improvement but not STTN yet. And if she is sick or teething it goes back to super frequent wakings all night unfortunately. Hope you start getting longer stretches of sleep soon!

ncbelle

We've had a similar experience in terms of me just having to say "enough!!".  Callum I nightweaned around 16 months because I was trying to get my cycle back to get pregnant again.  That went pretty smoothly.  Eleanor I just let go...until about a month ago when I felt like we'd crossed over into "this isn't working for mama" territory.  She still wakes but does fine with water and cuddle until about 5 am when it's all about being sad for milk.  In both cases, getting daddy involved was key - they were much more willing to go back to sleep with no milk if mama wasn't around.

Angela814

I night weaned at 26 and 25 months because I couldn't handle nursing multiple times per night anymore. 

sucredee

DD went down to once a night around a year and just as I was getting used to that she started waking up every 2-3 hours again (usually every 3). We went to Europe at 16 months and she was waking up every 2 hours (more than when she was 4 months). I would nurse and she would go back to sleep. One night DH told me to let her cry...that lasted for 30 minutes and she just escalated. My sister and all her neighbors could hear it. After 30 minutes I swore I would never do that again. 

Once we were back home and she was back on schedule I had to do something. I wanted her back to every 4 hours at the most (so 2x a night). She would wake up and I would lie down next to her on the floor (she was/is in a crib) and would sing the song I sing to her at bedtime. Se did cry and protest but somehow it didn't feel as bad since I was right there with her. After two night she was fine and down to 2x a night. She did that for a while and around 2 she went to 1x a night on most nights (except when sick). In the last month or two she is starting to STTN a lot more, most nights actually. If she wakes up I nurse her though. 

She still nurses before bed (but stopped nursing to sleep around 15 months unless she skipped her nap) and I actually started nursing her to sleep for naps around that time when she switched to sleeping in her crib for naps (until then she absolutely refused to sleep in her crib for naps only). I still nurse her (to sleep) for naps now but she falls asleep fine alone at daycare . 

It works for us. She will be my one and only and she will grow up soon enough. If it works for you and her than who cares. I was warned against nursing to sleep because it would create problems. But it has worked (and still is) for us and that is all that matters. 

nosoup4u

Both of mine would still be nursing overnight if I hadn't weaned them, ha ha haaaa.

katiewhompus

At 18 months Dd was still up every two hours to nurse and I was at the end of my rope. We used the Jay Gordon method of night weaning and went from 6 wake-ups to 1 (which is technically her morning session).  

pixieprincss

At 12-14 months, as DS1 had moved primarily to solids and I was well into  PG with DS2, I gently encouraged lengthening the time, as every 2 hours was getting to me. We stretched it to every 4 hours pretty quickly. DS1 self-weaned at 18 months and still doesn;t sleep longer than that, but 4 hours is AMAZING compared to 2 hours.

tinaraye

I have yet to night wean my 19 1/2 month old daughter. Very recently, she dropped down to nursing just twice a night--around 1am and 5am most nights. I keep thinking about night weaning her, but I just haven't developed a plan!

It seems to be two steps forward, one step back when it comes to night nursing. It gets a little better, then she'll have a rough night, but then it gets a little better again.

jb2rn

I know it's not what you want to hear, but my son got worse around 13 mos.

We did Dr.Jay Gordon's method for night weaning and it worked really well. He is almost 15 mos and sleeps from 6:30pm until 6:30-7:00am now.

I honestly thought it would never happen. Good luck!

ILoveRunning

My son cut down from waking twice at night down to once at about 18 months, from there until ~2 years he was reliably getting up once a night.  Then around 2 years he started randomly sleeping through the night.  Now he wakes up once during the night, one or two nights a week, usually due to a leaky diaper, cold, etc.

I've never attempted any sort of night weaning.  When he got to be about 18 months, I started to climb into bed with him and nurse him.  If I fell asleep, then I would wake up later and climb out.  If I managed to stay awake I would slip out once he was back to sleep. 

jshf

I was very scared DS1 would go crazy if I night weaned as he nursed 23 hrs around the clock! But at 18 months I told him my boobs were broken. He cried a little the first night but we cuddled to sleep. The second night he cried on and off but a lot harder than the first. The third he cried for less than a min. He unfortunately weaned during the day too. I guess he thought if they're broken they r all the time

I thought he'd sleep great once weaned but that didn't happen until we stopped bed sharing and even room sharing. It was too stimulating for us to be there.

BelhurstBride

18 months was a bad age for us. Teething definitely played a part in that. 

Sometime around two she cut down to one nursing session a night; when she came into our room from her room.  

nikkibs

I stopped night nursing when my son was almost 3 yo. Now at over 3 he finally sleeps all night! The only part I regret about nursing so long is that I had no idea it would rot two of his teeth since that didn't happen with my daughter, so just be careful of that! Otherwise, enjoy the closeness for as long as it lasts!