night weaning, bed sharing, and AP-how do these things mix?

[amberg007]

DD is just about 15 mo now and I want to start partial night weaning. At this point she still semi-wakes up every 2 hrs (ish) to nurse all night long. Some nights she just wants to nurse constantly. I know she's not hungry and does it more for comfort and out of habit. As selfish as this may sound, I have recently began to feel like I just cant do this anymore. I want my sleep and body back, at least for most of the night. Also, I am taking a 2 day trip at the end of January and she will be staying with my mom so she won't have access to nursing. She wont take a pacifier and when I attempt gentle weaning, she cries and cries and is not taking it well at all. I gave in twice already...and yes I know that is probably the worse thing I could have done...but my heart was just breaking for her. I just kept thinking..."how does this fit in with AP?" doesn't seem like it does. Also, with bed sharing, I am feeling like its going to be impossible to accompish this. any advice, shared experiences, suggestions are welcome. thanks in advance

[3girls1boy]

I have a friend who night weaned her three children at about this age like this: When they woke up and wanted to nurse, she got up with them, took the baby to the kitchen and put him/her in the high chair and turned on the lights. Then she proceeded to make them a snack with lots of chatting. She said each of her kids would give her this look that seemed to say, "Why is Mom going crazy?! This is not what I had in mind at all!" She did it for a few nights, until eventually her toddler would seem to hesitate when he/she wanted to ask to nurse, because they sure didn't want Mom going into that crazy routine again.

She did share the bed with her kids and it did work.

[EmilyG]

There is a book called the No Cry Sleep Solution. I read it when I was trying to get my 14 month old to go longer that 2 hours between nursing in the night. I thought it was very informative, but never went through with it. I think you were basically supposed to just keep putting them back to sleep by snuggling/pacifier/rocking however without nursing. I just couldn't indure the sleepless nights to get there and always gave in and nursed her.

[michellemomx3]

We night weaned our DD#1 at 21 months. Her dad took her and held her and soothed her back to sleep. This took about a week. I was two months pregnant and just couldn't do the night nursings anymore. We all slept together and are attachment parents, to me AP means responding to your child and we responded to her night needs and cared for her during the weaning time.