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Attachment Parenting
notreallyirish
member
Sleep/Nightweaning breakthrough!!!
notreallyirish
member
So, I hope I'm not jinxing myself by posting this right after DS went down tonight, but I didn't have a chance to post earlier in the day. Last night was the first night that DS slept for more than 2 hours in a row AND the first night he did not nurse back to sleep. He literally went from 5-10 nighttime nursing sessions to none. He slept from around 8:45 until about 1 and was up for quite a while just tossing and turning, crawling around the bed, fussing a bit, and occasionally asking to nurse, but then he finally went back to sleep until 6.
I have unsuccessfully tried several different tactics for nightweaning/getting longer stretches of sleep. I read NCSS, Ferber, Weissbluth, Gordon and NCSS for Toddlers. The pull-off made DS mad and only worked sometimes at bedtime and never during the night. Letting him cry at all was totally counterproductive since he would get hysterical to the point that even giving in to nursing wouldn't necessarily get him back to sleep. Plus, with any method I was always so tired by about 2 am (having already been awakened numerous times) that I gave up on whatever strategy I intended to use.
The method that is working is from NCSS for Toddlers. I have seen others on this board doing it as well. I told him that the milk is sleeping and he can have it in the morning. I said "nurse is night night, DS go night night, too" and I gave him a sippy cup of water. I SOOO didn't think it would work with my boobaholic. I wasn't sure if he understood night and day and he is not really one for waiting for anything even a second, let alone all night. I thought I'd just put him off for a couple hours at the most and very gradually build up over several days or weeks. However, it worked amazingly well and he went all night, by far the longest he has ever gone without nursing. I guess I was underesestimating his comprehension skills. He really seemed to understand what I was saying. He wasn't happy about it, but he understood what was going on. He cried briefly, but in a sad way rather than hysterically. It was very pitiful and broke my heart, but he seemed much more okay with not nursing after I explained it than any other time. I don't know if he will keep this up, but l will keep up with this method. Even if he goes back to his usual pattern tonight, there is LIGHT at the end of this tunnel. Last night was HUGE as far as our family's well being goes.
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Re: Sleep/Nightweaning breakthrough!!!