Nightweaning. Stop nursing to sleep at naptime too?

[4Marmalade]

I am currently nightweaning my 22 month old twins. We cosleep with them and up until last night I would nurse them in bed until they were done and then spend about 30 minutes lying with them while they fell asleep. They would nurse about 4-8 times/night. So, they didn't nurse to sleep at bedtime but did nurse back to sleep during the night although they usually just unlatched and rolled over still kind of awake. At naptime they nurse to sleep in bed until they are right asleep and then I unlatch them.

Last night I nursed them on the couch and then we went to bed and they did not nurse all night. Dd did get a bit upset during the 3-5am range but overall it was fine. And then this morning I got out of bed to nurse them on the couch. I made a point of telling them about not nursing when it's dark out and that milk is sleeping when mom is sleeping, etc...

But, what about naptime? Is it confusing to nurse them to sleep in bed then? If I don't I'm afraid they won't go to sleep. At 22 months they should be able to differentiate a bit between naptime and nighttime nursing right?

Did your dc have trouble nightweaning if you still nursed them to sleep at naptime?

[PGTlatte]

Our older DS had a much harder time giving up the nursing-to-sleep for his nap than he did giving it up at bedtime. For our younger DS it was the opposite - he gave up nursing to sleep for a nap at a younger age and on his own. Here, naptime and bedtime were very different things and each had their own routine, and the routines for them didn't seem to be linked to each other.

[CheriK]

I nightweaned my twins at 2 1/2. They were still nursing to sleep at that point, as well as several times at night, of course not the SAME times, and w/ my insomnia I was getting very little sleep. DD was giving up her nap by that point, DS continued to nap on/off for another year or so.

I always nursed them to sleep, for naps and bedtime, even after night weaning. They stopped nursing to sleep at night independently at some point (3? 4? they nursed for a long time), but well after they were night weaned.

Honestly, it never crossed my mind to couple nursing to sleep with nursing at night, they seemed like separate issues to me. The night nursing was an issue, the nursing to sleep was not. Night weaning was very easy for DD, very hard for DS (which fits w/ their personalities and willingness to do something new). I don't know that stopping nursing to sleep would have affected it at all. I really doubt it. I think it would have made it harder, as that comfort and routine would have had to change at the same time.

Not sure if that helps you or not!

[Baby_Cakes]

I don't mind nursing my DD to sleep. It was the constant nursing all night, etc, that had to go. IMO, it's not 100% necessary to eliminate nursing to sleep. I think falling asleep is something kids learn how to do on their own in their own time, and when I compare how easily DD falls asleep at the boob to how crazy it is when we try to rock her or just let her lay down, it's a no brainer. Nursing to sleep is so comforting and natural for her, and it works so well.
We had absolutely no trouble whatsoever nightweaning and we still nurse to sleep for both nap and bedtime.

[Vegan_Mom]

We night weaned our 2.5-year-old last November. My husband did it, actually. Our daughter started to wake up at night, more than once, and since i was getting up with her and nursing her to sleep, I was losing sleep. So my husband decided that he would stay up. Hearing my daughter cry for me was tough. However, it worked. Now when she wakes up at night (maybe once a week) I will sit next to her while she is in her bed while she falls back asleep. (We have the Fisher Price Rain Forest music thing. We don't turn the light part on, but she listens to the lullaby feature which I also like. I'll put one of my pillows behind my head an pull up an Indian blanket while I'm sitting in a rocker and sometimes fall asleep or just let my mind wander which is nice too.)

Since last Monday, she's been hit and miss at night. Some nights she'll cry like we're torturing her. It's helped a few times that I've sung "Amazing Grace" to her, which is an old favorite lullaby of ours. That has helped. Last night, she didn't want Mommy Milk at all, but she wanted my husband to go upstairs with her. When she woke up the second time that evening, she wanted me, but my husband sat with her again. (I stayed downstairs and fell asleep in a recliner. She woke up after my husband came down to get me.) When I heard her call for me, I was half asleep and thought, "Tough. You're going to have to learn to be with him." It worked.

When we spent Friday and Saturday nights at my in-laws' she nursed to sleep at bedtime, but that might have been more for comfort. Worked for me, as it was easier that way.

Theoretically, we're starting to wean anyway, since I'm pregnant again. I just think it might be easier as my pregnancy (into which I'm 11 weeks) progresses. She started the bedtime thing on her own, which is bittersweet.

Naptime is different, though. I'm not ready to give up that one, as my husband isn't always home to help me. However, twice in the past couple of months, she has fallen asleep on her own while we were reading her naptime books. Actually, the first time my husband called and I guess she got bored. She was sitting in my lap and leaned over and rested her head on the recliner armrest and fell asleep. The second time, I was almost done with the book and she did same thing. While I thought she was asleep, I finished the book anyway so she could not only hear my voice as she got deeper in to sleep, but because I wanted to see how the story ended, even though I knew. (It was a book on Elijah and the dry seven years and how God made it rain after Elijah challenged the king to try and get Baal to get it to rain. I don't even know in which chapter of Genesis it is. Oh, well. It's not like my father is a pastor and my husband is one. [Which they are])

Anyway, my 2.5-year old is calling me and making a mess of the living room.

I hope my rambling (and some venting) has been of some help.

[sarahdavida]

I am currently nightweaning DS who´s now 3 - he goes to sleep fine at night without nursing now, so now we´re about to work on the not-night-waking-to-nurse thing...

as for naptime, at his age, he frequently goes without a nap anyway, but sometimes he still needs it - and I still nurse him, because he just couldn´t (wouldn´t) nap without it - and I don´t want to deprive him of it when I know he needs the rest

he doesn´t seem to confuse the two and he knows at nap time he gets to nurse, but at night (when it´s dark and his body is more ready to go to sleep on its own) it´s "no nurse"

[LCBMAX]

Just nightweaned my 26month old son. I've kept nursing him to sleep for naps, and bedtime, but I simultaneously stopped lying down with him mid-nap to keep him asleep longer. I was thinking 2 things -

1. shorter naps are good during nightweaning, an exhausted baby fights less hard to have milk at night (also ran him happily ragged while awake with playgrounds, pools, etc.)
2. too confusing to nurse lying down in the nap but not at night.

In fact, I quit all lying down nursing when I started nightweaning, except for the part where I transfer him to bed from the rocking chair where he nurses to sleep.

More than a month later, still nursing to sleep for nap and night, no confusion, and now he's independently proposing that he nap at day care too! Ha, I have my doubts, but I never dreamed I'd be able to nightwean him without traumatizing myself at the least, so what do I know!

[4Marmalade]

Thanks everyone. So far things are going well. The first night dd was a little upset off and on from about 3-5am. The second night it was ds's turn to be upset although it was really minimal. And then the third night went really well. They are not asking to nurse at all just sleeping a bit more restlessly. I think that will improve over time. I am still nursing them to sleep at naptime because, like I said before, I think it would be a struggle to get them to nap and they still really need it. It's funny how they gave up nursing to sleep at bedtime but still nurse right to sleep for a nap. They must be more tired at naptime.