Nightweaning?

[Super~Single~Mama]

I'm posting this in Single Parenting b/c I'm wondering if its possible when my ds spends the night with his dad EOW and one additional night on the 'off' weeks.

How did you do it? The lack of sleep is driving me nuts, and I'm going to be in school full time starting next week, and then I have to take the bar exam. I know its a process, and something that will take time, and thats ok. I just want to know if its possible, and how you all have done it.

TIA!

[Roxanne600]

How old is your son, how often does he nurse?

Not getting enough sleep is tough

[doubledutch]

i have one son i night-weaned at 18 months (fully weaned at 3 yrs 3 months) and one whose last hold-out nursing sessions were those middle of the night ones (weaned at 3 years). that experience (two very different nursing styles) makes me think a lot depends on the child.

i used the no-cry sleep solution, toddler edition. it doesn't give a set regimen or anything, but has tons of different ideas and helps you figure out what your plan is going to be based on you and your little one. i planned on a two-week transition but it was a lot faster than that, and he literally didn't cry.

some details in our case aren't super helpful because i did rely a lot on stbx to help me with it, but i guess the helpful parts were explaining to ds what was happening while he was still awake in the evening. as he got ready for bed, i explained that we would nurse (in mama's room, no more nursing in his room) at bedtime, and again when the sun comes up. we would not nurse in the night. if he woke up when the house was dark, that means mama was sleeping and nursies were sleeping. i didn't expect that he would really understand, but he did - and this was a child who would previously scream his head off if i said 'no' at night. understanding it ahead of time, that it wasn't a forever kind of no and that he would be able to nurse in the morning, worked for him.

also knowing that we never, ever nursed in his room anymore helped, because we never took him out of his room in the middle of the night (he could/would not cosleep). if lincoln cosleeps, maybe stop nursing in your bedroom. have the couch or a comfy chair become your "nursing station" and only do it there.

good luck!

[Super~Single~Mama]

Thanks!! I'll work on that once we get home from vacation and are back into a routine (we're so far off our routine right now that I need to give it at least a month!)

Lincoln is 19mo, and he cosleeps with me (I have a 1br and he sometimes sleeps in his pack n play) but I want to be able to put him in a toddler bed when he's 2ish. He nurses mostly at night, maybe 3-4times a day during the day, more if he needs comfort for some reason (bonks his head hard enough to hurt, gets upset for a random reason, etc.).

I'm going to look at NCSS, and see if I can come up with some ideas, but I really like not nursing in the bedroom.

[Goodmom2008]

Originally Posted by thyra

I'm posting this in Single Parenting b/c I'm wondering if its possible when my ds spends the night with his dad EOW and one additional night on the 'off' weeks.

How did you do it? The lack of sleep is driving me nuts, and I'm going to be in school full time starting next week, and then I have to take the bar exam. I know its a process, and something that will take time, and thats ok. I just want to know if its possible, and how you all have done it.

TIA!

I started night weaning my kids at 12 months. My youngest took longer than the oldest.

First, let me tell you a little bit about my son's personality because personality does play a big factor on the ease of this. My son is relatively easygoing and doesn't care if he doesn't get his way most of the time. He was also the easiest one to nightwean. What I did when he was 12 months old was get rid of his crib (he never slept in it anyway) and put an old queen mattress on the floor and completely baby proofed his room. I also started counting out loud towards the end of nursing during the day (he wasn't scheduled, I just knew the signs that he was almost done as I'm sure you do with your child). I nursed him to sleep and then I left. When he got up, I would go in and nurse him back to sleep, except I would say that nursing stopped at the count of 10 and that "nummies" were going night-night after that. By the time 2 months had passed, he only nursed to sleep initially and slept through the night. How I got him to wean from nursing to sleep probably isn't an option for you at this time (I was pregnant with my second and he didn't like the taste anymore).

My daughter's personality is, well, not as easy going and she wants what she wants and wants it yesterday. She's also a very cuddly kid. I did the counting at night but I still co-slept,tried the mattress in her room and it didn't work. She took 6 months to nightwean. And I pretty much did this without my then husband's help. HTH.