- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Attachment Parenting
3003girl
member
Night weaning questions - 10 days in.
3003girl
member
I was finally able to night wean my 21 month old! yeah! I had DH take over nighttime for 2 nights and it worked out really well. One night she cried for a while, but DH was there, and it was only for about 45 minutes on and off. She was mostly mad. After that, it was just a few minutes each time, and by night two, she would just ask for milk and then go back to bed. So thank you all for the support.
A few questions:
It's been over a week now with no milk from 9pm to 5am. She's doing great, and it was pretty easy with DH's help. BUT, she still wakes up at 1am and 3am, and sometimes 11pm. She will roll over (we bedshare) and ask for milk. I'll tell her no, she has to wait for morning. She either says Yes and rolls back over or she asks to be rocked. I'll rock her for 2-3 minutes and then put her down and she'll go back to sleep. So all of that is fine, except I would really like some sleep! Do you think she is still used to waking up to nurse and it will just take her longer to forget the habit?
Also, what do you ladies who have nightweaned do if your LO gets sick or is teething? Teething used to be an all night nurse-a-thon, and I'm wondering what to do once her last molars come in. She has all her eye-teeth, thank goodness. She also nurses a lot at night when she is sick. I'm hoping that nightweaning helps with this, I'm just not sure what to do if she wakes up and is sick/teething and wants to nurse. I'm afraid it would get her back in the habit, but I also want to comfort her.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Night weaning questions - 10 days in.
I don't really have any insight for you except to let you know that we're in the same boat. DS is essentially night-weaned (I give in if it's after 5am just to get an extra hour or two of sleep out of him) for about 9 days now and still wakes every few hours. He does seem to have an easier time falling back asleep as time passes, so I'm really hoping it's just a matter of learning to roll over and put himself back to sleep when he stirs.
As far as teething, I can feel his two year molars coming in, and they don't seem to bother him as much as some of his other teeth have. We'll see how that progresses, but it seems to be a really slow process and he hasn't had much irritation with them yet.
Natural Birth Board FAQs
Cloth Diaper Review Sheet
hehe - hoping for a happier story...
That's what I was wishing for, and it seems to be the consensus, that night-weaning = actually sleeping at night. My intuition is telling me something else is going on, but I don't know what. Last night she woke up every hour for a while and just wanted to be held. She's not acting like she is teething (has all her canines, waiting for the 2 year molars.) She isn't sick that I know of. During the day she is fine.
I'm thinking of taking her to a chiropractor. My DH thinks I'm nuts, but I heard it can help with toddler/infant sleep issues.
amen to sleeping for longer than 90 minute chunks!
You should definitely try a chiro! It may not solve the problem, but I really think that being properly aligned and adjusted can help the body.
I should call mine, I've never taken DS and it's probably a pretty good idea.
I think most people have success with sleeping in a large chunk after night weaning, at least from people I have asked and heard from, especially on this board.
FWIW she was doing great from about 6 months ~ over a year old. She would go down at 7, wake at 1 and 5 and then wake for the day at 7am. Then she started getting her eye-teeth and got sick a few times and we traveled and she's been out of whack since late summer/fall.
I'm trying to find someone close to where I live that is good with toddlers... We'll see!
My little dude has been a rotten sleeper since about 3 months. I go through periods of living with it, and periods of working on it. I go back to work in 6 weeks, so this is my last hurrah at working on it before I need to be a functioning adult again.
I'm still doing it slowly and gently, though, so I do expect it to take some time. He does go back to sleep pretty easily without being fed, so it has reinforced to me that he's not really hungry and I'm not doing him any favours by caving and breastfeeding eight zillion times a night.
Natural Birth Board FAQs
Cloth Diaper Review Sheet
My LO is 24 months and I've been doing and extremely gradual night weaning, as in we are on week 12. I am trying to wean her from nursing to sleep and from waking up to nurse every hour or two. The 12 weeks have been mainly to reduce the time it takes her to nurse to sleep. Initially it would take her 45-60 mins of nursing to fall asleep. When I started 12 weeks ago I started removing her from the breast after 10 minutes of nursing and have been reducing one minute per week. We did two weeks of nursing for two minutes and this week we started nursing for one minute.
For nursing during the night I have been doing a similar thing and we are also down to a minute or two per feeding. She slept 5 hours for the first time ever 6 days ago and did that three days in a row but the past two nights she has not been happy about the reduced nursing time and has started trying to nurse every hour again. Last night she woke up 4 times in one hour in addition to her hourly feedings. I am very against letting her CIO and am willing to work with her as long as it takes but ideally would like her to be weaned in a month or so. I am hoping that she at least goes back to sleeping the five hours again. Honestly, I would be happy with three hours of sleep in a row.
So no advice but you are definitely not alone. Oh, to comfort her I will hold her and sing her special song and she will fall asleep with that after having nursed first.