...and how did it happen? ("assisted" in some way-e.g. nightweaning- or spontaneously?)

[noah's mom]

Here's our story: DS2 will turn 2 in a couple of weeks. We've coslept since he was born, and he has never been a good nighttime sleeper. He has randomly STTN TWICE in his entire life (once for 6 hours straight, once for 9 hours) - but every other night he wakes up AT LEAST 3x and needs to nurse to go back to sleep.

His older brother, who is 4 1/2, started STTN consistently right around his 2nd birthday, but I just don't see this happening with DS2. He's not a particularly high-needs child, actually quite easygoing most of the time, but b/c I work fulltime and he is in daycare, I feel like he NEEDS the time with me at night....he loves his "nursie bed".

I've been debating on-and-off whether to nightwean him, b/c lately I've just been OVER night-nursing, soooo exhausted at work. He will sometimes let me off the hook when he wakes up if I say "it's snuggle time", and will roll over and go back to sleep without nursing - but most other times he flips out, will get MAD and sometimes starts to verge on hysterical so I end up nursing him.

I'm really hoping to avoid nightweaning (just cuz I'm so tired and don't want to "deal"), so I'm wondering if he might suddenly decide to start STTN: hence this poll.

Also, if anyone has additional "tips" on how to handle this (yes, I dealt with it with DS1 but it really does feel like you're starting over with the next child b/c temperaments and experiences are so different) would be much appreciated!

[echoecho1528]

Still patiently waiting at 21 mo.

[mynetname]

Last night!
No night nursing...slept from 9:30 pm until 7 when I woke her up being noisy.
I haven't STTN either in 14 months. She's always sleeps for long stretches (6-ish hours) but last night was truly the first night she didn't nurse and slept 9.5 hours if my calcuations are correct so I feel very, very rested.
Will this happen again soon I do not know.

For the OP: I don't know, it's my first baby and I just don't have any good suggestions. Does he completely wake up to nurse?

[Honey693]

We kind of sort of night weaned (first 6 days of Jay Gordon's plan and changed 7 hours to 6) a few weeks ago and now DD sleeps 5-6 hours most nights. She does it more than half the week though so I'm counting it was STTN.

[Llyra]

DD1-- I won't say how early. Somebody might smack me. I will say it was before she was two months old. But I was EPing for her, and bottlefed babies seem to have different sleep patterns. Then again, she's five now, and still sleeps 12 to 14 hours out of 24. I think she's some kind of freak of nature! Big sleeper, that kid. Loves her some sleep.

DD2 (twin)-- around eleven months. I night-weaned her, and she started sleeping seven or eight hours almost immediately. She did it easily; she had been down to one waking anyway, about an hour before dawn, and gave that up very easily.

DS (twin)-- 12 months. It did not come easily; it was after a very difficult night-weaning for unavoidable reasons.

FWIW, I am not some big believer in forced night-weaning. Given the choice, I would have night-nursed the twins for months and months, or even years, longer than I did. I was very, very sick for about sixteen months after they were born, and my body was falling apart, and I was on the edge of a breakdown. I was often spending most of the night in the bathroom while the babies cried for me, and nightweaning seemed like the only solution to our situation.

I think DS would have continued night-nursing and waking often well into childhood, if we had gone with child-led weaning. He was very very attached to nursing to sleep. I think DD2 would have slept through the night pretty soon after we weaned, anyway, all on her own. She had already been down to just one waking, and often DH could easily soothe her down when she woke, without nursing.