Help! DD Nursing More--I Want Less!

[erin_mama]

I'm an infrequent visitor here, but am in desperate need of help/tips/advice...

My 19mo DD has decided that eating is not as great as nursing. So, just as I am getting weary of nursing all day and all night, she's ramped it up so she's nursing every 2-3 hours during the day and at least 3 or 4 times every night! Sometimes she won't settle after nursing at night and cries for more right away. Last night I had to nurse her 3 times in a row before she would settle back to sleep, and this is becoming more usual.

I'm getting more and more tired and ready (shall we say desperate?) to start night-weaning her, but don't know how to go about it at such a young age when she just cries on end if I try to settle her by cozying rubbing her back or anything. We are a co-sleeping family with an older child who spends a little less than 1/2 the night in our bed, but is otherwise mostly in her own bed in our room. I'm afraid night-weaning will kill us all because of the way she carries on when I try to sooth her in other ways.]

Any tips or tricks or ideas? Thanks!

[JamieCatheryn]

I'm sorry I know how tough it is when they keep after you and you're done. But it really sounds like she's not ready yet. You're doing great at trying to do it gently, I think that's the best response you're going to get. Having DH put her down instead of you might be worth a try.

[jecombs]

I night weaned my DD when she was 14 mo. old because she was nursing all. night. long. And I was going to lose my mind if I didn't get some sleep! We used Dr. Jay Gordon's Method for co-sleeping families and it worked! But it did involve crying. A lot of crying the first couple of nights, that gradually receeded when DD realized I wasn't going to give-in. So, in my experience, if you're not ready to deal with the crying, it's probably not the right time to night-wean.

Just a thought, but do you think your DD is getting ready to achieve a major developmental milestone? My DD always ramped-up her nursing and decreased her sleeping when she was getting ready to do something big, like walk, learn a bunch of new words, etc. I think her brain just went into over-drive until she mastered whatever skill she was working on.

This, too, shall pass.

[perditafoster]

Blurgh. Night weaning. No fun. We put a toddler bed on dh's side of the bed and put dd #1 in it. Then, when she woke up and wanted me, she had to crawl over him and he'd wake up, give her a sippy of water and put her back in the bed. Took like two weeks, and sometimes she'd scream so much that I'd nurse her, but it cut way down on the night nursing really quickly. She weaned at the end of that time. I got pregnant a month later Anywho, she got tired of having to deal with dh, so she gave up! Oh, she was almost two at the time, like 21 or 22 months.