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Attachment Parenting
KittyKatMom
member
Help! Where do I go from here? (night weaning)
KittyKatMom
member
DS is 16 months old and goes through phases of sleeping 7-9 hour stretches, and waking up every 2-3 hours to nurse. He starts the night in his crib and comes to bed with me after the first wake-up. We have been in a frequent waking phase for several weeks now, and it?s beginning to take a toll on me. I don?t mind waking up a few times at night, but I need to get a restful sleep in between, and I haven?t been.
Last night, I put him down at 7pm and he woke up to nurse at 8pm, 8:30pm, 12am (this is when he came to bed with me), 2:30am, and 4am. When he was reaching his hand down my shirt again at 4:30am, I decided enough was enough. I told him, ?You just had milky. You need to go to sleep now. Mama is tired and needs to sleep too. We can just snuggle.? He didn?t like this of course and proceeded to cry and whine and flop around on the bed. I told him, ?Milky went night-night. You can have milky in the morning when you wake up.?
He fussed for about 20 minutes total, then fell asleep. Ten minutes later, he was up again, reaching down my shirt. I repeated that milky went night-night, etc. and sat up and rocked him against my chest. He was rooting around for my nipple like a newborn, but finally settled down and went to sleep after about 10 minutes. He woke up talking at 6am and it seemed like he was up for the day, so I said, ?Okay, the sun is up. You can have milky now.? I nursed him laying down and we both fell back to sleep until 8am.
So my question is, what do I do tonight?? I was thinking I would still nurse him when I initially bring him to bed, but then if he wakes up again, tell him milky went night-night and he can have it in the morning. I feel like I?m not ready to cut him off completely overnight, but do you think that's too confusing - being able to nurse in my bed the first time he wakes up, but not every time? Should I have gotten up to nurse him at 6am this morning instead of laying down in bed? It was so nice to be able to fall back to sleep, but I don?t want to send him mixed messages.
Any feedback/advice is appreciated. Thanks!
"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world." - Jack Layton
BFP #2 12/26/11 ~ EDD 9/6/12 ~ MMC discovered on 1/27/12 @ 8w1d (measured 6w2d)
BFP #3 8/10/12 ~ EDD 4/23/13 ~ MMC discovered on 9/13/12 @ 8w2d (measured 6w6d)
BFP #2 12/26/11 ~ EDD 9/6/12 ~ MMC discovered on 1/27/12 @ 8w1d (measured 6w2d)
BFP #3 8/10/12 ~ EDD 4/23/13 ~ MMC discovered on 9/13/12 @ 8w2d (measured 6w6d)
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Re: Help! Where do I go from here? (night weaning)
I was concerned about this too but it ended up not being a big deal. He caught on very quickly. However, we started eliminating the feedings in the beginning of the night instead of early morning. At first we focused on not nursing at his first wake up, which was usually 2 hours after he went to bed. Then we worked on not nursing for 8 hours. After we got to 8 hours, which meant he was waking up around 4 ish, it took only a few days before he dropped the 4 am feeding all on his own! All in all, night weaning took 2 weeks and tears only for the first few nights.
Whatever you decide, consistency is key. Good luck!