Things have to change

[Honey693]

DD was partially night weaned (5-6 hours) before Christmas and it was fabulous. During Christmas her sleep went back to being awful. The last few weeks it's been even worse (up every 45-90 minutes). I am exhausted and I feel like she's a newborn again. I also want her to start sleeping in her own bed b/c she needs to be sleeping alone by the time number 2 shows up. I have no idea how to go about this though. Do I move and night wean at the same time? Night wean first? Something else?

[Maluhia]

Does she sleep better away from you or with you?
What about getting a larger bed so you can all sleep together?
Is she nursing more because of the changes in the family, if so, weaning will be very very difficult.
How old is DD?

[Honey693]

Originally Posted by Maluhia

Does she sleep better away from you or with you?
What about getting a larger bed so you can all sleep together?
Is she nursing more because of the changes in the family, if so, weaning will be very very difficult.
How old is DD?

I have no idea.
We have a king and do cosleep.
I have no idea why she ramped up the night nursing. Nothing has really changed at home.
15 months

[mamika]

Crystal I sooo sympathize with you. I wish I had some great advice, but I'm in the same boat as you so maybe somebody can help us both.

DS is 15 months and his night-waking has been driving me crazy. He's always woken up ALOT (5-10 times) but it gets less and less tolerable as he gets older. Sometimes I'm able to put him back without nursing and other times he just uses me for comfort and nurses for 30 seconds and then pops off to go to sleep. DH and I decided, as a result of my increasing crankiness, that it's time for a change. Last night was our first night embarking on the night-weaning journey.

DS woke up in total three times and each time DH comforted DS back to sleep. The first waking he cried for 20 minutes before falling back asleep and after that he only cried for a minute or two before going back to sleep. We were hoping to have DS sleep in his crib. We currently co-sleep and we thought DS may sleep better if he has his own space. He's also started to move alot in bed and it makes it really hard for DH and myself to sleep.

However, after DS's first waking he refused to sleep in his crib. Eventually DH brought DS into the family bed and they both fell asleep together. DS slept much better after that. I was, unfortunately, booted to the living room since I knew if DS laid down next to me he want to nurse and it could get ugly.

Basically I'm realizing that we are trying to do two things at once: night-wean and move DS out of the family bed. I really don't mind DS sleeping with us, it's just the constant night-waking that I hate. I feel like unless he's in his own space, he will continue to cry and fight for me to nurse him. I'm beginning to think that maybe we will do half night-weaning and allow him back into the family bed early in the morning. It's still only been one night so it's hard to tell.

One thing I can say is that the idea of getting a full night sleep or even 6 hours in row seems like a dream. I get so jealous of all those moms with babies that sleep through the night...ugh!

[ErinYay]

Dr. Jay Gordon's AP/cosleeping friendly night-rearranging article.

Note that this is for babies one year of age and up *only.*

[rzberrymom]

15 months is prime time for molars and incisors, and it can take quite a while for them to come in. For my DD, they were incredibly painful--I didn't always realize how bad it was for her until they came in all the way and she FINALLY went back to sleeping normally.

That big of a change sounds to me like she's in pain.

[Honey693]

Originally Posted by rzberrymom

15 months is prime time for molars and incisors, and it can take quite a while for them to come in. For my DD, they were incredibly painful--I didn't always realize how bad it was for her until they came in all the way and she FINALLY went back to sleeping normally.

That big of a change sounds to me like she's in pain.

She definitely has teeth coming in now and she has a stuffy nose so she can't sleep. I know this is a million times better than waiting up for a teenager who drives to come home and some day I'll look back on this and think it wasn't so bad, but man this sucks!