I'm thinking about night weaning my 16 month old daughter in the next month. I'm waiting until my husband has an easier schedule so he can take over a lot of the night time parenting for a while.
The reason I want to night wean is that my daughter sleeps very erratically during the night- sometimes she only wakes once or twice and is easy to get back down and that's fine, but she often wakes many times per night and is very difficult to get back to sleep. It is really wearing on me, and I'm finding myself a lot shorter with her and my husband. My patience is thin, my brain isn't functioning, and I'm becoming a much less nice person and frankly it scares me. So I think maybe night weaning will help. I am going to try.
We don't cosleep anymore, mainly because we live in a small apartment and our bedroom is in the same big room as our livingroom and kitchen. I do bring DD into bed with us when we're having a particularly rough night, but I try to avoid doing this because DH usually wakes up really early and if he eats breakfast it disturbs DD's sleep.
So anyway, my plan is to let DH take over all night-comforting between the hours of midnight and 5am. Outside of those hours I'll still nurse. DH occasionally does get out of bed to care for DD, and he is usually but not always able to get her back to sleep. So we know that she accepts him for comfort. If I take care of DD I have to nurse her back down, she will accept no other form of comfort from me. But to be honest I rarely try anything else, as soon as she cries I just nurse her.
I think we'll try this for a week or two and see what happens. Any tips, advice, etc?
One additional issue is that DD is teething and has been for a while. She's getting her molars in. It seems like her teething has subsided a little, and maybe in a few weeks she'll be even better. Last night I gave her teething tablets and she slept better than usual.
The reason I want to night wean is that my daughter sleeps very erratically during the night- sometimes she only wakes once or twice and is easy to get back down and that's fine, but she often wakes many times per night and is very difficult to get back to sleep. It is really wearing on me, and I'm finding myself a lot shorter with her and my husband. My patience is thin, my brain isn't functioning, and I'm becoming a much less nice person and frankly it scares me. So I think maybe night weaning will help. I am going to try.
We don't cosleep anymore, mainly because we live in a small apartment and our bedroom is in the same big room as our livingroom and kitchen. I do bring DD into bed with us when we're having a particularly rough night, but I try to avoid doing this because DH usually wakes up really early and if he eats breakfast it disturbs DD's sleep.
So anyway, my plan is to let DH take over all night-comforting between the hours of midnight and 5am. Outside of those hours I'll still nurse. DH occasionally does get out of bed to care for DD, and he is usually but not always able to get her back to sleep. So we know that she accepts him for comfort. If I take care of DD I have to nurse her back down, she will accept no other form of comfort from me. But to be honest I rarely try anything else, as soon as she cries I just nurse her.
I think we'll try this for a week or two and see what happens. Any tips, advice, etc?
One additional issue is that DD is teething and has been for a while. She's getting her molars in. It seems like her teething has subsided a little, and maybe in a few weeks she'll be even better. Last night I gave her teething tablets and she slept better than usual.
