Nightweaned, but still waking up, will this stop?

[dance]

We night weaned my 16 m old DD last week per Dr. Jay Gordon. We did kind of an adapted version. The crying stopped after the 2nd night and when she woke up we were able to get her back to sleep with relative ease and no tears. Now she wakes up every night at about 3 am and just will not go back to sleep. So before when she would wake up I would lose maybe 30 sec of sleep as I latched her on, now I am up for 20 , 30 min. or last night an hour.
So I am sleeping much worse than before.
She is nightweaned ( well kind of, our cutoff is 5 am, she can have milk if she wakes up after that) but it hasn't done us much good.
ANyone else experience this? I thought they were supposed to start sleeping through with this method?
I am exhausted and I also don't want to go back to feeding her at night because I want to encourage ppaf.
Thank you.

[Aries1985]

My nightweaned 2 yr old still wakes up sometimes. Now, she goes back to sleep in minutes for DH. But, right after the night weaning, once DH left the house at 4:15 for work, she would wake up and stay up. This lasted 3 weeks? Now, she's sleeping until 5, usually straight through or waking up once around 3am for a couple minutes. Prior to night weaning she was up every 2-3 hours, for long periods of time.

[lisalu100]

We're in the same boat as you, nightweaned last week, still waking at 2 or 3. I 'm hoping it's just going to take a while longer. I have water for her, in case she's thirsty. DH said she really wanted it last night.

[spatulagirl]

I nightweaned my two-year-old a few months ago and she still wakes up. I think she might until she moves to her own space.

[Halfasianmomma]

It took a few weeks for my DD to stop waking up after I nightweaned her at 20 months. She had just gotten into the habit of doing this for the boob. I just went through it with her, offering to rub her back, give her a sippy of water and sing a song quietly. I tried to be as calm as possible, and sometimes pretended I was asleep...after a few minutes of whining, she realized there was nothing else to do but go back to sleep. Sometimes she had a freak out and sometimes she just cuddled my arm, licking the skin. After 2 week or so, the wakings lessened and she now STTN from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.

[Teenytoona]

My DD is 2 years and a few months and has been nightweaned for a few months. She still wakes up nearly every night. We've been putting her in her own bed most nights, but sometimes she still sleeps with us the whole night. Either way, she wakes up. If she's in her bed, she comes to us. Both ways she needs to have some water. Squirms around a bit, makes sure she's touching both DH and I and goes back to sleep. But at least we've got part of the night that's parent cuddle time.

[Peony]

Night weaning doesn't mean they will stop waking up. Often they were waking up for something and using nursing as a way to get back to sleep. DD2 nightweaned herself 1.5 years ago and still wakes up at night. I lead groups for moms so I hear lots of night time stories and this i very common, nursing or not.

[nervousmommy]

DD2 nightweaned herself 1.5 years ago and still wakes up at night.

At what age did she nightwean herself?

[dahlialia]

Dd1 weaned at 3 years old. She regularly slept through the night when she was 5. Some kids take a long time learning how to resettle when they stir in the night.

[LCBMAX]

I think I asked this same Q about 6 weeks ago. First we nightweaned (at 25 months) then I moved out of the bed about a month later, leaving husband and son snuggling happily. The pattern is gradually but definitely improving from frequent wake-ups needing daddy's full attention (7 nights per week)
to
occasional sttn interspersed with 3 -4 wake ups for water and a quick snuggle, plus at least one night with a full on 2 am 2 hour party in the living room
to
frequent sttn interspersed with 2 - 3 wake ups for water and a quick snuggle, and still one 2 am party
to
mostly sttn, occasional water wake-ups but son snuggles himself back to sleep, and the 2 am party is getting boring and ends faster.

So that took us from 25 months to 28 months. Looking forward to 29.

[D_McG]

My son woke for a short time. I would just ignore him though. I mean he was in bed with me and I'd cuddle him but I'd basically pretend to be asleep. No stimulation at all.

[Mya's Mommy]

I was going to ask the same question. DD is 12.5 months and we are on night 6 of night weaning. DH is now sleeping with her in her room (on a mattress on the floor) and I'm sleeping in our room. First night she cried for about an hour with DH, but now he can settle her again in seconds/minutes, but she is STILL waking 4-5-6 + times per night. On night 3 she slept 8 hours in a row (a record for her), but hasn't again since. We are hoping this will improve???????? Our next step is to try her in her crib because we ALL need to start sleeping better...

[Living Slowly]

Our son, 2.5, still wakes often at night. He has a toddler bed in our room, but hardly sleeps in it. He night weaned at 12 months because I was 4 months pregnant and miserable.

Our 13 month old DD has been waking every hour for the past 8 months and I am just done. I am going to night wean her in a few weeks after we come back from our vacation. I hope it improves her sleeping because I don't feel like I can go on anymore and my husband is miserable too.

Sorry I don't have anything constructive to add, just commiseration.

[poppan]

I nightweaned my twins 1.5 years ago and they still wake up at night, but if we are there they usually don't come all the way awake anymore. I think it took us a few weeks to a month to get to the point where they just feel around for us and if we're there they go on back to sleep.

I don't know how to wean them off co-sleeping though, so I am not really counting myself as "done" yet.

[LeoneLover13]

Same problem over here too. I am sleeping much worse than before she was night weaned, it sucks!!

We just fully night weaned our 21 month old a few weeks ago. At the same time we moved her to her own bed and room. She still wakes somewhere between 3-5am one of us goes in and pats her back to sleep, usually within a few minutes, and then she wakes again around 6am because that was the point at which we were allowing her into our bed to nurse, but that has since stopped but she still wakes and comes into our bed. Which would be fine but she will not go back to sleep for hours sometimes, she now has to be literally ontop of me or she is crying/whining/complaining.

I think they are so used to waking at night, they keep waking up wanting us there/wanting comfort. Also, I don't about your LO but mine has a really hard time going to sleep at night. She is fights it something ridiculous so that it takes 1-2 hours for us to get her to sleep. I believe she is fighting it because we are there with her, if she was alone, she would have no reason to fight sleep, but since Mom/Dad is there with her and she knows we are planning on leaving the room when she falls asleep, she fights it. Which I think is also what happens at night too.

I don't know, just an idea of what could be going on here. I think this is one of those things you have to wait out again.

We are trying less and less stimulation at night when she wakes, so I am down to just putting my hand on her softly for a minute and she's asleep, at least at the first waking anyway. I am also trying to find the perfect soft doll for her that has hair just like mine because she uses it as a comfort every night and I will replace my hand with the doll so that when she continues waking she can (hopefully) find the doll and go back to sleep on her own.

Sigh...We could just be waiting this out though..

[Alisse]

This thread is really scaring me. Nightweaning has been that light at the end of the tunnel!

[LCBMAX]

Originally Posted by Alisse

This thread is really scaring me. Nightweaning has been that light at the end of the tunnel!

It's ok mama. Everyone is different. My 2.5 yo son still has phases of big wakes, frequent wakes but also NO wakes. And since we nightweaned, and I am still recovering from 2+ years of insane sleep deprivation, I moved out of the family bed. Son and dad handle the nights on their own, as best they can. I know my son is in loving hands, even if he's crying. This has been great for their relationship (and they were already very bonded) as well as for my health. If there's a partner in the house, a babe who still wakes up after nightweaning doesn't have to mean more sleeplessness for you. (hint: earplugs, and a commitment to your own sleep.)

[jldumm]

My daughter went pretty straight to sleeping all night after weaning,about a month of dad going in and helping her get back to sleep. Then she would only wake up for pee and water. My son we weaned at about the same time, which is 12 mo... about as long as i can stand the all night nurse a thon. He still wakes up at least once a night, sometimes he settles easily but he will go for weeks at a time and cry for an hour or so (with someone in there patting or rubbing or holding) before he goes back to sleep. and he usually is up at 5 or 530 for the day (though he nurses with me for an hour or so.)

Good luck

[Louisep]

We nightweaned at 12 months. At that point he was waking every 1-2 hours. About a month later, he was waking maybe every 2-3 hours, but I think some of this change was because we dropped to one nap.

The big change came at 14 months when all his teeth came through. I suspected all along that his night wakings were teething related and also correlated with developmental milestones. (I don't think we slept at all the month he learned to walk).

At 18 months, he will STTN maybe twice a month but usually he wakes once or twice. Some nights it might be as many as 4 times a night. I don't think he will consistently STTN for a long time to come and it's just who he is. My DH and I take it in turns to sleep with him, which has helped me regain my health and sanity.

I don't think this thread is representative of the nightweaning experience and I wouldn't be surprised if most babies did start sleeping better after nightweaning.

[Baby_Cakes]

We did the same method w/DD at 14 mo. She's now 22 mo and still wakes up to cuddle/roll over maybe 1-2 times per night. Just b/c she's nw'ed doesn't mean she doesn't ever wake up! She's mostly STTN but some nights are quieter than others. I say keep at it. It took about a month to get to a point where all DD needed was a cuddle to fall back to sleep.