I think I've come to the conclusion that nightweaning is way more stressful than it's worth. DD's (21 months) dropped naps now and sleeps about 12 hours at night (sometimes a little less or a little more). Once she dropped naps putting her to bed at night has gotten so much easier but she's still nowhere near sleeping through the night. I'd say she normally goes 1-4 hours without waking up (but much closer to 1 than 4 on average).
We tried nightweaning this week (we've tried putting her to bed before without nursing and it's ALWAYS been a disaster, which normally led to her throwing up from crying so much... and this is when DH and myself are right there cuddling her/rocking her/singing to her etc).
The first day she was up about 2 hours before she feel back asleep. She went to the potty 3 times, was constantly asking to nurse and sometimes would just cry "why, why??". She then fell back asleep for 4 hours straight and woke up for the morning. The next night was infinitely worse, though. She was basically up from 5-8. Screaming much more this time. She finally fell back asleep from 8-10 but when she got up at 10 there was clearly something off with her. She was totally lethargic. She ended up having diarrhea that day (and again this morning too). Last night we just nursed her back to sleep every time. We've talked about waiting at least another month before trying again but I haven't seen any improvement in her sleep for almost a year now... I can't imagine a month is going to make a difference!
Part of the reason we really are pushing to have her nightweaned is that we have a move coming up in Jan. DH's family lives about 5 hours away from the town we're moving to and we'll be going back and forth a bit until we have everything settled. DH and I would really like to be able to go there for a few days alone to set everything up while DD stays with the grandparents (she'd be 2 then). However, at this point there is just no way she could stay even one night without me!!! During the day she's fine (she'd prefer to nurse and have me there but is ok if I'm gone). Taking her with would be really difficult because we'll basically be going non-stop the days that we are there (we have to look at cars, set up the apt, look at schools, sign contracts etc.). We're just not sure what to do.
We tried nightweaning this week (we've tried putting her to bed before without nursing and it's ALWAYS been a disaster, which normally led to her throwing up from crying so much... and this is when DH and myself are right there cuddling her/rocking her/singing to her etc).
The first day she was up about 2 hours before she feel back asleep. She went to the potty 3 times, was constantly asking to nurse and sometimes would just cry "why, why??". She then fell back asleep for 4 hours straight and woke up for the morning. The next night was infinitely worse, though. She was basically up from 5-8. Screaming much more this time. She finally fell back asleep from 8-10 but when she got up at 10 there was clearly something off with her. She was totally lethargic. She ended up having diarrhea that day (and again this morning too). Last night we just nursed her back to sleep every time. We've talked about waiting at least another month before trying again but I haven't seen any improvement in her sleep for almost a year now... I can't imagine a month is going to make a difference!
Part of the reason we really are pushing to have her nightweaned is that we have a move coming up in Jan. DH's family lives about 5 hours away from the town we're moving to and we'll be going back and forth a bit until we have everything settled. DH and I would really like to be able to go there for a few days alone to set everything up while DD stays with the grandparents (she'd be 2 then). However, at this point there is just no way she could stay even one night without me!!! During the day she's fine (she'd prefer to nurse and have me there but is ok if I'm gone). Taking her with would be really difficult because we'll basically be going non-stop the days that we are there (we have to look at cars, set up the apt, look at schools, sign contracts etc.). We're just not sure what to do.
