DD wakes up and refuses to sleep again without nursing ...

[nj's_mom]

She's sixteen months. We have always co slept, she's never had a bottle, always nursed to sleep and night nursed. Lately she has started going to sleep without nursing. I rub her back and say "lay down and go to sleep" and she sort of flops off to sleep. But with the night waking, which has me EXHAUSTED, when she wakes up in the night to nurse I have been saying no. I still rub her back, sing to her, all of that, but she gets PISSED. The neighbors must think I beat my child. I am not joking. The worst part is that eventually (this seems to have no end-point sometimes) I give in because I can't stand to see her so upset and I'm probably making it worse. I am exhausted and all of our sleep is suffering. HELP!

[LadyCatherine185]

I think it is pretty common for babies who have always nursed at night to still want that. Are you trying to nightwean? Do you have a partner that can help? DS always wants to nurse with me, but will go to sleep easily for DH (obviously w/o nursing). Have you looked up Jay Gordon's nightweaning plan?

[noobmom]

I just posted this on another thread, but I wanted to give you a . DS's night waking/nursing peaked around 18 months and slowly got better after that. If you don't object, I would just go ahead and nurse her. DS did this too (falling asleep without nursing, but still wanting to nurse when he woke up in the middle of the night). I think it's just a part of the process of nightweaning and I don't think it's a step backward.

[Drummer's Wife]

I coped with this by learning to fall back asleep during (multiple) nightly nursing sessions. My 3rd continued needing to nurse back to sleep until he was 3 ( I know, not helpful right now) but there is no way I would have been able to wake up fully each and every time he wanted to nurse. Some LO's just have a harder time staying asleep at night - if the alternative is singing/back rubbing/etc. and crying - I would nurse and find a way to do it while still gettting rest.

If you are set on nightweaning (and I do understand if your sleep is greatly affected) I would see if your DH can assist with getting her back to sleep. I do think that witih co-sleeping, it's a bit harder to nightwean b/c you are right there, tempting with boobs.

[butterfly_mommy]

DS has been nursing and then falling asleep with me helping him(singing, rubbing back, just lying with him) since he was about 14 mons or so. I actually prefer him to fall asleep nursing but he hardly ever does that now. Anyway when he stirs at night he needs/wants to nurse so I nurse him back to sleep. At 16 mons he was waking and nursing about 3-5 times during the night but I found that it was much easier and restful for all of us if I just latch him on and doze off.

Last night he slept 8 hours without waking or nursing! He has been decreasing his night nursing sessions gradually over time. I seriously would not be a happy mama or him a happy Toddler if I refused to nurse him at night. I find that even though my sleep is interrupt a little from the night nursing over all it is a small price IMO to pay for a quite night.