Day wean or Night wean first? Child-led or Mama led?

[Beauchamp]

Which did you? If you did CLW, did your LO wean off days or nights first? Same goes if you did some Mama-led weaning...days or nights first? And why?

Just curious. We're not ready to wean yet, although I'd *like* the night nursing to decrease naturally a bit. I'm just not sure that's realistic. It seems like my DD is slowly decreasing how much she nurses the couple hours before bed. Basically I think my DD is saying, "Mama, I am too busy playing to nurse right now, but I'll be sure to hit you up for milks all night, ok?"

So, just wondering what to expect, what is "normal", average, etc. Thoughts?

[kcstar]

It depends on your situation.

Because I WOH and DS reverse-cycled, dayweaning was easier. The nightweaning techniques I tried earlier did help to cut down the number of night nursings, but he wasn't ready to eliminate them.

I've usually heard that the bedtime nursing is the hardest to eliminate, but we seem to be having more trouble with the ~4:30 or 5:30 am. At bedtime, all I have to do is tell him he has to brush his teeth or he doesn't get milk. He signs milk, I sign brush teeth, he cuddles up and stops tugging.

[momasana]

DS night-weaned on his own. He is a big comfort nurser so I know he needed it more during the day than during the night. It was a slow but natural progression, dropping a night feeding here and there.

[poppan]

Mama-led here. I nightweaned first (22.5 months--took about 2 weeks so were 'nightweaned' at 23 months). Then I gradually cut down on daytime too and weaned-weaned at 31 months. By that time the only time/place I was still nursing was in the bathtub (I took baths with them). So when we went on vacation for 2 weeks at a place with only a shower -- that was it (and I was glad because I was so done by that time).

Why I nightweaned first: I had gone back to work about 7-8 months before that and the chronic sleep deprivation was really taking its toll. Nightweaning at that time ultimately enabled me to nurse for longer, because it took away my huge frustration at nursing and made it fun again. It was so fabulous to sleep more than 2-3 hours at a stretch--I honestly felt like a new person. Even if they woke at night (and DD did, a lot) it was much faster/easier to get her back to sleep without nursing.

[**mom2one**]

DD1 was 25 months when she was night weaned - my idea - I was tired! lol. Then I got pregnant and miscarried and she just naturally weaned then for some reason. DD2 is 19.5 months and we are working on night weaning now. She nurses for comfort mostly I think. She is up about every 2 hours still - I need more sleep! So the first night she got upset for about 5 mintues. We co-sleep so i just picked her up and snuggled her on my chest. She fell back to sleep quickly and rolled off of me and stayed asleep until the next usual time. I told her that ta ta was sleeping right now and she would have to wait until the sun came up...this went on every 2 hours until about 5 am when I let her nurse. She was soooo excited to nurse! I thought it went pretty well that first night - but of course it was worse the next night and then our schedule got all messed up and I gave in on the 3rd night! Then last night I nursed her to sleep, then the next 2 times she woke up I nursed her back to sleep. That last time I left her in bed with DH - I went and slept with DD1. HE said she woke up all through the night trying to nurse on him lol! then at 6:30 she came in to find me and nursed and went back to sleep until 8:45. SO think maybe if I am not there it might work better for us. She didn't cry and she just let DH hold her and would fall back to sleep easily for him. So if he's up for it we will try this the next few nights and hopefully she will start sttn and be night-weaned!