When did you night wean?

[gottecat]

I am wondering when you night weaned if you did.

[Chloe'sMama]

DD is 18 months and going strong. I don't think I will force it.

[Mrsboyko]

We sort of pushed her to wean around 17 months, but it didn't fully happen till 18+ months. Basically I offered her a sippy of water if/when she woke. She was very angry the first few days and i did usually end up BF'ing her. Eventually she would take a few sipps of water and fall asleep. The only reson I did this is becasue I was newly pregnant and really exhausted.

[gottecat]

I am really torn. I dont want to push him in any way.... But my husband is being deployed for a year in july. I would really like to get pregnant before he leaves. I am on my first cycle PP and i am on day 71.... So I am hoping it will help my fertility... but I hate feeling at all like I am neglecting my son in any way to have another baby...

[tinuviel_k]

We night-weaned at 15 months, but continued breastfeeding until four years.

My daughter was waking up every 2-3 hours to breastfeed even at 14 months. I was literally losing my mind from lack of sleep. I couldn't breastfeed while sleeping, it took me 1/2 hour to get back to sleep each time we woke... I was not in a good place mentally after over a year of 5-6 hours of sleep a night.

I hung on until Denali was very established on solid foods, then gently night weaned over the course of a month. It was amazing: she went from waking four times a night to waking only once around 5am. I did breastfeed her to sleep and then when she woke up early in the morning if it was getting light. Usually she'd fall asleep again until 8am or so.

Night-weaning did not adversely effect our daytime breastfeeding relationship at all. My daughter loved to nurse until we weaned at four years old.

[canadian Jess]

oh, I have to know something, you said that you gently night weaned your daughter over the course of a month. That sounds amazing to me. My DS wakes up 8 times a night and if there was a way I could break him of that gently I would love to. I'm about to wean him for good, in one shot cuz I don't think I can take it anymore, I really feel like I'm loosing it. My marriage is falling apart, my house is falling apart....I'm sure you remember how it all felt. Anyhow, if you have any tips I would so love to hear them. I don't want to put him through all the turmoil but I'm at my wits end, 8 times a night for the last two years!!! Okay, well, maybe not fully two years, when he was younger he did better, twice a night was his best but now at 22 months it's a record breaker with no signs of getting any better. ahhhhh.

oh, by the way he is BF and co sleeping, always has, but my own bed sounds so good. now when he wakes I nurse to sleep, he doesn't wake for long and can ususally pantly pull him off but it doesn't diminish his wakings.

thanks.

[gottecat]

this is a good gentle way
http://www.drjaygordon.com/development/ap/sleep.asp

[NicaG]

Dd is 14 months and still nursing 1-2 times a night. I am starting to think of nightweaning her, mostly because I am totally exhausted from interrupted sleep. I'll see how much longer I can hold out.

[MummaLitt]

We actually weaned during the day first and then weaned completely. For about 2wks, i would only let him nurse when he first woke up in the morning. Then we cut that out too. But i think he was ready for it cause if we weren't at home, he had no interest in nursing during the day. And the night nursing was more for comfort then nurishment.

[funkymamajoy]

Baby will be 1 on Jan 7 and we're starting to night wean now. Last week we moved him into the big kids' room and his night wakings went from constant to once (and on two blessed nights, none). I'm hoping he follows DD's pattern and starts to consistently STTN now that he's in another room.

[fruitfulmomma]

I voted 'Don't'. Whenever they are ready to stop is when we stop. My 3yo doesn't night-nurse anymore but my 1yo does.

[Lizafava]

We tried to night-wean my first at 16 months but that was way too early for him. We tried again at 18 months and had a slightly easier time. He was a horrific sleeper and after nightweaning was just a bad sleeper He went on to nurse for over three years.

I nightweaned our second a little earlier that I think he was ready for. But I was getting ready to do an internship where would be away from him for 48 hours at a time and I felt like he needed to be ready. It went okay. He has times where he sleeps through the night now - hes 17 months. And other nights - like last night - where he sleeps like poop.

A major downside of all this with him is that *I* actually can't get him to sleep anymore even if I tried. But I think that has more to do with the internship.

[Aries1985]

I've been thinking about night weaning my 17 month old, but I don't think she's ready quite yet. She does not eat very many solids. However, I am SO ready to sleep more than 2 hours at a time! I'd really like to let her lead the way.

[InMediasRes]

I nightweaned at 19 mo, although we started the process at about 16 mo. I was pregnant with terrible pregnancy insomnia and a nursing toddler who wouldn't take anything else but nu nus....ever. hour. He woke, nursed, went back to sleep. I took another 45 min to fall back asleep, and he woke 15 min later. I didn't feel like I had any other choice. It took a long time, and I did it as gently as I could, but I still wish I hadn't had to do it.

[gottecat]

Bumping to top for more votes.

[Lilly Milly]

I wish this poll included an option prior to 8 months so if there were other people who have had a similar experience to mine.

My LO is mostly nightweaned already and she's almost 5 months. I know it is unusual for an infant to NIGHT CLW this early, but she is doing that. Perhaps it is just a phase (for almost a month now). I liked bedsharing and cosleeping both and procrastinated moving my daughter out of the bed because I wanted to be close to her. If we had any room at all in our tiny bedroom she would be in the same room or sidecarred crib (she prefers it, honestly, we never CIO). We still do cosleep after her first morning wakeup.

She prefers her crib to cosleeping and literally cried every couple hours when bedsharing and when in her bassinet (too small, I think) and we never CIO or anything. At first I would just offer the breast but it became very clear that she wanted was her own space. We moved her to the crib and BAM she slept through the night and didn't need (or even want) to nurse from 10pm to at least 5. She still occassionally will want/need to and I feed her, but don't think that all babies HAVE to nurse at night up to 18 months. My 5 mo old usually doesn't and it is HER choice.

We did have her on a routine and did various things to get her used to her crib from 2 months to when we moved her at 4 months.

[ChinaDoll]

DD stopped night-nursing on her own at 15 months, but I was pregnant

DS stopped sometime after 2.5 years, I think; we never 'night-weaned' though.

[almadianna]

Nightweaning before a year is not a good idea IMO. Babies tummies are not really meant to not eat for 8 hours straight until they are older than a year. I dont nightwean until they are ready to, my oldest nightweaned at 2 or so, dont remember. My 16 month old is still going strong. I will not push it but I also refuse to nightwean before 12-15 months.

[Ks Mama]

I voted 24 - 28.

With both my children, I very gradually introduced alternative methods of comforting in the middle of the night, after they turned two. We didn't officialy "nightwean" with any specific method or timeline - just let them mostly lead the way with my gentle guidance & suggestion.

For my daughter, it took about a month to go from waking every hour or two to waking once or twice per night. With my son, about a week to go from waking every few hours for milk to waking once. No crying.

Waiting until your child has a say in the matter always makes things go more smoothly. I was able to communicate my plan, what was making me uncomfortable, and ask their opinion & offer alternatives that I knew they could grasp & understand.

Also, you definitely don't want to nightwean prior to 1 year - its just not healthy. I still wake thirsty in the middle of the night, and I'm 34.

[MommaCrystal]

I can't vote. Both my boys stopped night nursing around 8ish weeks old. At that point they just seemed to go back to sleep without it. So I went with it. No crying, co-slept. We'd just get the diaper changed and snuggle a bit a poof! Asleep!

And then a couple of weeks later they both started sleeping straight through for 8 or more hours.

But THEN, when they started walking... oye! They started getting up all hours of the night. That didn't really resolve until over 2 years old.

I wonder what baby #3 will do! Probably something TOTALLY different!