Nightweaning Questions (esp if you *don't* cosleep anymore)

[merebella]

DS is comin' up on a year, and still waking 3x a night to nurse. He nurses, and goes back to sleep within about 10 minutes, so it's not a *huge* deal, still, it's me up 3x a night. He's in a crib, with the occasional couple hours here and there in our bed. We stopped cosleeping between 6-7months.

So, my questions are this:
1)How did you nightwean your babe (gently) with him in another room?

2)Did anyone use Dr. Greene's method, while not cosleeping?

3) Will nightweaning an almost 1 year old cause him to wean soon during the day? I do not want, and would like to continue to nurse him to two or until we're both ready to move on.

4) What were things that you did that you thought helped your nightweaning efforts?

5) How long did it take?

TIA, mamas.

[Cartesia]

bump

[lifeguard]

I used the Dr. Jay Gordon method to nightwean ds. He sleeps in a crib in our room for the most part & it went quite well. I think he was ready for it - if he'd made a terrible fuss about it in the process I was prepared to stop & try again in several weeks but it went very well. We did it at 14 months. He has shown no signs of reducing his sessions during the day. He went from waking every 2-3 hours to sttn at 5-8 hours the second night - again I think it is because he was ready for this step.

Good luck.

[_betsy_]

1)How did you nightwean your babe (gently) with him in another room?
I let DD be done with night nursing on her own. I was in a "ain't broke, don't fix it" zen kind of place with getting up with her 2-5 times a night. At 16.5 months old, she started to refuse to nurse at night, at 17.5 months old she slept through the night without much assistance from me or DH anymore (at least after the initial bedtime stuff).

2)Did anyone use Dr. Greene's method, while not cosleeping? Don't know Dr. Greene

3) Will nightweaning an almost 1 year old cause him to wean soon during the day? I do not want, and would like to continue to nurse him to two or until we're both ready to move on.
For us, night weaning did lead to a full weaning within a few months. BUT, I got PG with DD2 when DD1 was about 19 months old. And I WOH FT, nights, and I had/have very little BFing support locally, so I was really thrilled to have nursed as long as we did.

4) What were things that you did that you thought helped your nightweaning efforts? I wasn't trying to wean. She did all by herself.

5) How long did it take?

[peacefulT]

I nightweaned my DD at 11.5 months {no flames please, I did what was right for MY family} As to your questions :

1)How did you nightwean your babe (gently) with him in another room?
We have always co-slept and continued to when I weaned and she is still co-sleeping.

2)Did anyone use Dr. Greene's method, while not cosleeping?
Not sure who Dr. Greene is .. so no advice here

3) Will nightweaning an almost 1 year old cause him to wean soon during the day? I do not want, and would like to continue to nurse him to two or until we're both ready to move on.
I think it depends on the baby and what your day looks like after you nightwean {ie. do you work days, have a sitter, does he spend time away from you etc.} In the case of my DD, who has always been a boobaholic .. after nightweaning she nursed much more frequently during the day and started eating a LOT more solids. She still nurses 5-8 times a day. I am a SAHM for what it's worth, therefor we are together all.day.long. I think if your ds is with you most days and you continue to offer this will not pose a problem after nightweaning .. I know my dd still takes comfort in falling to sleep with the boob, and I continue to do that.

4) What were things that you did that you thought helped your nightweaning efforts?
As in actual methods .. I didn't practice one so to say method. Although I did read a lot. The best thing for me was to be reasonable with myself and keep in my mind that it was NOT going be easy, but I was doing what was best. There will be lots of tears but in the end I kept thinking ..Happy, rested mama = Happy baby. I also made sure to never to leave my dd's side and give her lots of cuddles and reassurance, and stay CALM.

5) How long did it take?
The first night was the hardest. Pre-nightweaning, my dd was waking up every hour. The first waking of the first night there were lots of tears and anger .. that she didnt get the boob. I held her in my arms and she eventually calmed down and went back to sleep. The second waking was far less tears. And on ...
Night 2 was far less stressful. She only woke 2x and pretty much only cried for a total of 10 mins .. with me holding/patting her.
By night 3 she was sleeping from 7/8pm till 5 am .. And continues till this day with that routine.
With that said, she does still wake up. Some nights once, some nights more, some nights none .. but its never more than 1 minute {more of a little whine and toss and turn} and which I roll over, lay her on my chest pat her back and she is off snoozing again .. literally in 30 seconds or so.
I never thought it would be this quick for us. If she was ready to nightwean or not.. I am not so sure, but it was effecting me in a really negative way during the day, functioning with no sleep .. something had to change for us. Do what's right for YOUR family. And just keep in mind, if you start the process and it is too hard or stressful and you two aren't ready.. you can always stop and try again at another time. Good Luck

[mi_amor]

1)How did you nightwean your babe (gently) with him in another room?

DS was nursing 2 or 3 times a night, but they were very short nursing sessions. Instead of me going in to nurse him when he woke up, DH went into DS's room and rocked him back to sleep. (DH usually rocks DS to sleep at bedtime too). DS didn't make a fuss, but if he was getting upset I would go nurse him. After a few nights, DS woke up once a night and a few months later he slept through the night without waking up to nurse.

2)Did anyone use Dr. Greene's method, while not cosleeping?


3) Will nightweaning an almost 1 year old cause him to wean soon during the day? I do not want, and would like to continue to nurse him to two or until we're both ready to move on.

I'm not sure. DS is 15 months and nurses around 4 times a day. He eats a lot of solids and only drinks water from a cup. I would also like DS to continue nursing until he's 2.

4) What were things that you did that you thought helped your nightweaning efforts?

Having DH help was essential. I had PPD and wasn't functioning well with very little sleep. I wanted to see if DS would nurse a bit less at night and if DH rocked him back to sleep and thankfully it worked. Waking up only once at night was a huge improvement that caused me to function better during the day.

Oh, I also gave DS some cereal or a small snack before bed so he wasn't waking up hungry at night.

5) How long did it take? It took 3 or 4 days for DS to cut back nursing from 2 or 3 times a night to once a night. And a few months later he didn't nurse at night anymore. DS was 9 or 10 months old when we started, and by 12 months he was night weaned.

Good luck!

[belle.h]

1)How did you nightwean your babe (gently) with him in another room? DD sleeps in her own room in her crib. I'd had enough of her waking several times a night, to nurse. So, DH would go in to her. I knew she would go down much easier for him, as I work evenings often and he puts her to bed easily. He would go on, turn on her little music thing, maybe cuddle her, or just go in and say good night. LEave the room for a few minutes, she might have fussed a bit, he might go back in, but usually didn't need to. She'd roll over and go to sleep.

2)Did anyone use Dr. Greene's method, while not cosleeping? No, I'm not aware of this method

3) Will nightweaning an almost 1 year old cause him to wean soon during the day? No, DD still nurses during the day, before her nap and before bed

4) What were things that you did that you thought helped your nightweaning efforts? DH! I'm not sure I could have done it without him. I knew she didn't need to feed (she was 17 months) and I was getting resentful about nursing. Our family needed this change.

5) How long did it take?
About a week, and it led to her sleeping through the night!!

[CrunchyChristianMama]

We just finished night-weaning my DD at 15 months because I was tired of getting up in the night.

The first night I went in there the first time she woke up and held and rocked her. She asked for "na-na" and I just calmly kept telling her that we weren't going to na-na and that it was time to sleep instead. She faught me for a while, but then calmed down and went back to sleep. She started crying when I laid her down in her crib, so I rubbed her back until she fell back to sleep. After that, my DH went in if she woke up and put her back to sleep.

The first two nights were hard. Then it got easier and easier. Now she is sleeping almost 12 hours straight without a peep and her nap went from a 1.5 hour in the middle of the day to around 2.5-3.5 hours!

for sleep!

Oh yeah, and the day nursing has definitely not slowed down at all with all of this!

[merebella]

Thanks, gals. We were going to start last week, then, lo and behold, ds slept 8 hours one night! We couldn't believe it. Second night - 7 hours! We though, "wow, we won't even have to do the Dr. Gordon thing!" (BTW, I said Dr. Greene in my op, but I meant Dr. Gordon. ) So, we were really excited. Since then (about 5 days ago) ds has been a nightwaking fool! Up 4-6 times a night and just having a really terrible time.

Unfortunately, dh has been off of school this whole time and we were hoping to tackle the night stuff then. Now that we're worse off than we were before break, dh is going back to school tomorrow

To furthur complicate everything, I'm not 100% pos that ds isn't cutting a molar. But my dh made a good point, am I going to put off doing the dr. gordon method for another year or so just because he could be teething at any point? I mean, if he really is cutting a tooth and I know it, that might be different, but I suppose I could always find a reason to avoid the difficulty of dealing with the crying.

So, all this to say, I think we're going to give this another couple nights and then start with Dr. Gordon in thurs (dh has just one class fri.) and then is doesn't have class again til tues.

I'd appreciate hearing any more thoughts or experiences. Thanks!