Co-sleeping mamas, when did your toddler stop nursing all night long?

[NJKim]

DS is 19 months and still nurses all night long. Will he eventually stop or will I have to nightwean? He's working on his canines now so I'm keeping my hopes up that it will get better after this round of teeth, I really need some sleep! But, then again, I've said that after every round of teeth and it never happened....

[TiredX2]

Children do eventually nighwean themselves. It can be a long haul though.

I think the most common time for a big cut down in night nursing is right around 2 years of age. It seems like around 17-22 months there is a big increase in nursing (lots of people worn out and saying "my 20 month old nurses like a newborn"--- yeah, if you had a 25 lb newborn with teeth!). IMO, I think that is the big ramp up to more talking and independence around the 2nd birthday. With that 2nd birthday seems to often come a slight decrease in nursing overall with many people reporting more sleeping through the night.

That said, if you consider STTN to be 5 hours DD hit that around 25 months (we partially nightweaned her) and DS not until after 4. They were 3.5 and 5, respectively, before they went the whole night w/out nursing. Having DS nightwean himself, though, was one of the most satisfying (emotionally) experiences ever.

[sunfish21]

When I night-weaned at 21 months! She had been waking up between 3-5 times a night every night for over a year. After two weeks of night weaning, she was sleeping through the night waking only once. After two more weeks she has actually slept through the night!!! For her, it was really a habit and it was not bad at all. We just say goodnight to the nummies and see them when the sun comes up.

[peacefulT]

Maybe this will help you .. this was my answer to another thread on her .. we did this ALWAYS co-sleeping .. hope this helps!

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.

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

[Crispie]

with alot of effort and encouragement at 18ish months. he knows boobies are sleepin from 11pm to 6am. i'm pregnant again, and had to get rest-so decided to night wean. i'm so so glad! we are all sleeping better-best of luck with gaining some rest!!! from the other side-it's worth it and wasn't too hard

(nak- sorry crummy grammar/punctuation)

[leaveit2beeker]

23 months. And still not night-weaned. *yawn*

[laneysprout]

DD didn't stop until we night weaned at 20 months. But even with that, she still wakes at night at least once to use the potty at 31 months

[frontierpsych]

DS is 16 months and still nurses a lot at night. I don't mind it, I would probably day-wean him before I night-weaned him. I'd prefer an older child who nursed more at night than all day long. That's just a personal thing though. I kind of like that nursing makes night time so much easier. I am assuming he will night wean when he starts STTN (which he does, on occasion). Right now I would actually prefer him to go longer stretches during the day without nursing, and start eating more solids (he eats about as much solids as a baby just starting out on them).

[Materfamilias]

DD 17 mo still nurses a lot at night. Normally it doesn't bother me but lately she's been a bit fussy so I can't move much

[IAMommy]

DS (19 mo) is basically night-weaned and STTN, but it is because I am pregnant and I think my milk is gone. No swallowing, I never see milk or any change in my breasts. He will ask to nurse, maybe, every other night, but I think it is just for comfort.

[rockportmidwife]

My baby just turned one and I was wondering about this. My grandma thinks that it is so horrible that he still wakes up at night. I don't usually mind him getting up 1-3 times a night. But for the last month, he has been getting up around 10 times a night. I am exhausted. Granted he has 4 teeth coming in. Would this be the cause? Is there something that I should do to get him to wake up a little less? Is there something wrong? Someone told me that I should take him to the doctor, but I thought that was silly. I figure that he'll outgrow it eventually. Oh, also he is still more interested in nursing than regular food lately too. I catch him throwing food on the floor or feeding it to the dog.

[readytobedone]

mine started mostly sleeping through at about 2-2.5. by sleeping through i mean she doesn't normally nurse between bedtime and about 5-6 a.m. she does still wake up sometimes, though.

[mom61508]

DD stopped NW a lot when I night weaned her. She still will wake often at night for comfort then I just cuddle her back to sleep. Also she's cutting eye teeth so she has been up a lot. So my point is even If you NW there's always reasons why they wake

[Halfasianmomma]

My DD stopped waking up to nurse after I nightweaned her at 14-15 months, mostly because a) she was waking every 90-120 minutes to nurse and I was going back to work FT, and b) I was running away from an abusive situation with an alcoholic spouse and needed my witts about me.

It took about 1 week, with the first 3 nights being the hardest. I did it solo, using Dr. Jay Gordon's method, and wore a lot of sweaters to bed to hide the scent of my skin from DD.

She's now 18 months and sleeps from around 8:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. without waking to nurse. Then we nurse on both sides and she may or may not fall back asleep. There were a few relapses when I accidentally nursed her at 3 a.m. thinking it was 5 a.m. (boy did I pay for that mistake dearly!). We still cosleep though she sleeps on her own single mattress while I sleep on the queen mattress next to her; if she smells me or touches me, she immediately wants to nurse even if she's half awake. I

[D_McG]

When I weaned him at 22 mos.