Started DrJayGordon nightweaning program - Page 2

[Shanghaimum]

one more thing..

I just thought of one more thing - I thing it is important to not see nightweaning as necessarily "all or nothing". Even after ds was not nursing consistently for the six hour stretch, there were times when he would again nurse all night long (every hour or so) - times like when he was sick, or teething, or when we were away from home. Sometimes we would actually have a week or two, where ds would nurse all night long. Then once things were back to normal, we would resume 'no-nursing'. He never cried, but usually the first night he would be restless and just need extra cuddles. ... then he would resume his normal pattern of moreorless sleeping through.


Emma

[UmmSamiyah]

Here I go!

OK, I have been procrastinating even reading the Jay Gordon Sleep plan. I am so busy during the day I feel terrible that I want to wean at night. But I am exhausted! I barely got any rest last semester! I go to school full time, work part time and am starting my own business, so sleep is a luxury to only be interrupted by my babe! I don't mean to sound bitter I just need sleep! Anyways, thank you for listening to my rant and wish me luck. I hope by the start of the next semester I have had and will have a full night's rest!

[UmmSamiyah]

oh yea!

I was reading through Dr. Gordon's site and noticed he hates having babies sleep in a separate room in a crib or bed. Both of my kiddie poos sleep in their own rooms due to lack of room in our bed. DS just recently got used to sleeping in his own room and having his own space. I don't want to confuse him by bringing him back in our bed. On the other hand if it will help him wean I will do it. Is there anyone else who has their babe in a different room? Or am I the only bad parent??

[PAflower]

Hi Monique. I also have my son in another room due to my husband's inablility to cosleep. We used to have two beds in our room so I would just bring him in to our room in the middle of the night. Now we have one bed so I go into his room. He wakes up a lot and just says, "momma?" and if he hears me he usually goes back to sleep. I wonder how long I will be in his bed with him. I really want to sleep with my husband!
Will he eventually sleep all night in his room? Has anyone done it this way?

[UmmSamiyah]

RETRACTION!!!

Or am I the only bad parent?

I didn't mean that!!! I meant am I a bad parent??

[hipumpkins]

Island mommy how's it going?
We are making some great strides here in my home. Johanna has not nursed in the middle of the night for the last 3 nights. She is still waking but I am able to get her to lay down and go back to sleep. I can not bring her into our room at night, right now b/c then she just wants to nurse all night. iIn her own crib, however, she goes right back to sleep. I am unable to leave her room though b/c she hears me so I end up sleeping on her floor holding her hand. I also introduced a very cute teddy bear that she loves and it helps her get distracted from wanting to nurse. She has not cried formore then 2 minutes the past 3 nights. Can a full nights sleep be far behind????? I hope things are going equally well on your end.

[Island Mommy]

Uh well, not so good here. DD has a streaming cold...her first really bad one. Needless to say, she is having difficulty nursing and our sleep is rapidly going downhill.

Now as well as nightwaking we're having a heck of a time at bedtime. She gets into this "zone" where she just cries and cries. Holding her gets her more upset. Trying to nurse doesn't work. Eventually she falls asleep but I really wish I could figure out why she's doing this. We never leave her alone when she's falling asleep but it sure does feel like CIO. Don't you wish they could just talk sometimes?

[UmmSamiyah]

Pleasantly surprised

I must say! I didn't think I would be able to sleep through the night. But I did the first three nights and DS caught on so quickly. I don't know what it was/is but for some reason after the second night he just quit waking up in the middle of the night. I think one night he woke up to whine soI just held him and he was ok to go back to bed. Last night I stopped nursing him at 11:18 at 6:14 this morning he was up to nurse! Yea! Oh and Island mommy, it may be easier for you to night wean now that baby is not wanting to nurse. Just when your DD gets better continue the routine of getting up to hold her instead of nursing. Are you using any kind of humidifiers or nasal decongestants? Maybe lying down hurts her head.

[IfMamaAintHappy]

Is anyone doing this and moving from co-sleeping to crib sleeping?

Is anyone doing this using a lovey (blanket/stuffed animal) or using any white noise or anything?

I had been wanting to nightwean, and decided that this was also a great time for Lily to learn to fall asleep on her own.

My older DD nursed to sleep and was never nightweaned until she self weaned at 31 months when I was 6 months pregnant. We never did a lovey, and we did use a fisher price aquarium for a lullabye type thing for her... but she was 2 1/2... whereas Lily is 14 months.

Grace, even when very ill with a cold or fever, never woke me more than 3 or 4 times, and that was in extreme circumstances. She moved from a twin bed in our room to a twin bed in her room very seamlessly at 2. Lily got 8 teeth in 5 weeks and then had a terrible cold that lasted for several weeks. We are on the other side of that now, and she is waking upwards of 4 times a night every single night and we just cant handle it anymore. I never thought I would feel such peace about starting a nightweaning process like this, but really, I have got to start getting decent rest. I waited to see if things would change after her cold, and they just arent. Lily falls asleep hanging out with Papa in the recliner several nights a week, so she is capable of falling asleep without nursing, and takes comfort from Papa, so we have a few points in our favor.

Anyway, we are starting tomorrow night, barring any odd circumstance like a sudden illess. I am glad you are here to listen to our experiences!

[Sleepymama]

Island mommy, we went through this bedtime problem this week too--a couple of nights he screamed in our arms until he puked. Argh!

I found this natural music for sleep CD that I had gotten free a long time ago and put it on, and it really helped! One of us sleeps with him on a big futon on the floor in his room and we have a CD player in there. We do his bedtime routine in the family room--bottle, play computer games with DH, then lights off and walk around in the dark, then into his room, lie down in bed until asleep. Well he was starting to freak out before we even finished the routine and DH took him in his room and he just relaxed when he heard the music! Might be worth a try--there are lots of sleep CDs out there.

We tried nightweaning with a crib, but apparently it is made of acid. He wouldn't even sleep in it at all. That was a week and a half of pure hell. But he has never even napped in a crib. He is doing better--only wakes 4-5 times a night now instead of hourly (most nights, on bad nights still hourly). But I am not consistent about denying the booby. It really depends on whether he seems more agitated or twitchy than normal (teething, bad naps that day, etc.)

[hipumpkins]

Is anyone doing this using a lovey (blanket/stuffed animal) or using any white noise or anything?

I introduced a stuffed bear and initially it took some tome for her to snuggle with it. How I started was, when she would wake crying to nurse I would have the bear "smell" her feet and faint. She thoguht that as very funny and a few nights we were up for more then hour playing but not nursing. Now she sems to really like that bear. We haven't been up playing or nursing for 4 nights now. She does need reminders to lay down but she goes right back to sleep. Hoipefully no surprises are down the road (teeth, colds) and we can continue on this path to sleepdom.

I do play a lullabuy CD that my mom made for us,too. I don't know if thaty helps or not b/c sometimes for naps I forget to turn it on and she goes right to sleep anyway.

[IfMamaAintHappy]

Thanks for your reply, hipumpkins, and again, glad to see others here with some commiseration and cameraderie!

Another question.... is anyone using any water for the nights when baby wakes and is allowed to nurse before being put down awake... is anyone using water for the first night, if requested, of the non nursing when you wake nights?

Just wondering. I dont recall the site mentioning that aspect, and how to know if they are really thirsty.

I plan on offering water or nursing if she wakes the first 3 nights, hut wondered what your thoughts were.

Tonight is night one. We ought to take turns napping this evening before it starts.....

[Shanghaimum]

Since nightweaning, my son always takes a sippy cup of water to bed with him. I don't think it is a bad thing...
We also use a white noise machine (we ordered it from earplugstore.com - it is excellent).

Good luck everyone - it really will get better.



Emma

[*solsticemama*]

Hi mamas. I've been following along reading how everyone's doing and decided to check in, let you know I'm cheering for you. I've yet to start the program. Ds is asleep in the sling right now. That's how he goes down for every nap and night. Unless it's a really challenging day and we get in the car. I guess part of me is just not that confident that this program will work for us. I've tried comforting ds when he wakes, holding him, rocking him etc and while it has worked in the past occasionally lately it's not working at all...gotta go he just woke up, more later.

[IfMamaAintHappy]

I nursed Lily down at 11 last night and laid her in the crib. SHe has taken naps there and spent part of nights there, so it is not a strange place.

She woke at 11:45. I nursed her a little, sang to her, my husband "shhhhhhh-ed" her, we laid her down, she popped back up, we started it over again. Took about 45 minutes, and I really think she fell asleep at the breast when I laid her in and she stayed asleep.

She woke about 3:50. I nursed her a good, long time. We sang, we hugged and held and rocked and shhhh-ed. Repeat. I think about 20 minutes into it I told her I wasnt going to nurse her and I started singing to her. I first sang Old Macdonald, then Twinkle Twinkle, then Baa Baa Black Sheep, then the kids praise song "Deep and Wide". It seemed to work well for us if I sang to her while I held her, and then when I laid her in the crib, I had a hand on her tummy and her back. I slowly took the one hand out from under her, and left the other on her belly and sang more and covered her up. It worked. Took about 45 minutes again.

If she'd awakened at 6, Id have brought her into bed. She woke at 8:05!!!! I brought her into bed after telling her what a good sleeper she was, then we nursed and slept for an hour.

So that was night one.

[kofduke]

We started 3 nights ago. I thought, like ging-ging, that this would be a good chance to get Aaron 100% in his crib, but I've revised that, and I think it was too many changes at once for him. I spent 3 hours one evening trying to get him in his crib (either asleep or awake!) until my DH told me to bring him to bed so I could get some sleep. He's been going down to sleep at 8:00, and not waking until 3:00. At that time, he comes to our bed - it seems it's more the cuddles than the nursing he wants. Both nights, he's awoken wanting to nurse around 4:00, and getting a little angry that I won't nurse him, but after about 15 minutes he is falling back asleep. Overall, I'm impressed iwth how well it's going!

[TranscendentalMom]

I posted on here awhile back....happy to report that its worked! Ds slept from 8-6:30 last night in a floor bed in the next room. We didn't do quite the way Dr. Gordon did it - basically we put him to sleep in the floor bed and then dh when in an patted him to sleep when he woke. After several weeks, he stopped waking up.

[love2bhome]

I am very happy with our progress in nightweaning. DD has been sleeping a good 7-8 hours with no nursing. She still wakes up on occassion, but I just tell her the milk is all gone and she lays down and goes to sleep. It doesn't work after the 7 hours are up - she's hungry or thirsty I guess.

I gave her some water the first few nights of no nursing. She took it fine. Now when I offer she refuses. If I ever manage to get her in her crib more often I will definately leave her with a sippy cup of water.

Happy sleeping!

[IfMamaAintHappy]

well, our turn with the stomach virus is giving us some interruption to the magic 10 day plan, but I am alreadyseeing positive results from our decision to night wean.

Night before last, Lily got sick at 11:00 pm. I rocked her to sleep, and put her in her crib. She woke again not long after that and we were able to comfort her to sleep in 15 minutes, with not much crying in arms at all. She settled into the rocking and swaying and was fine. I put her down drowsy, and she fell asleep. When she woke around 4, she gagged and retched a little, so I figured she really had a virus. I went to the living room with her and we were in the recliner the rest of the night. She didnt nurse till 8:30 or so yesterday morning.

She seemed fine all day yesterday, ate lunch, a bit of supper, I nursed her down at 11. SHe woke around midnight and my husband rocked and swayed and shushed her. Took longer, but she settled in about 20 minutes. When she woke at 4:30, she spat up milk, so I took her into the guest bedroom and laid with her. I sang to her while she was next to me and she drifted off after being told that "ging-ging went night night".

At 630, my older DD woke with the stomach bug. so we'll see how we all feel tonight and decide how to progress. Lily is fine from the bug now, but Im not sure how Rob and I will be! :-P

[laurag]

I have had luck with...

Hey sleepless moms can I make a suggestion? I recieved words of wisdom from a mother that suggested, nurse baby (about 15 months) to sleep, but inform the child no more milk untill morning. The child will wake up asking for milk and crying but you refuse, hold them, and tell them when the sun wakes up and you can see the trees outside you may have milk. 3 nights of fussing and then the child gets the picture. I know other moms that have has success with this too. My girl still wakes up and ask (2 years old), but I ask her do you see the sun light? she understands and just wants to be held and we fall fast to sleep. Good Luck. Carrie