Can I implement Dr Jay Gordon night weaning when my baby is 8mo? - Page 2

[Kiwiontheloose]

I think that putting a time frame on it, at night, just gets confusing for the baby, and you might end up with an awake baby for a good 2-3hrs at night while you try and get him back to sleep..(we tried the same thing at 10mths and it didn't work).

What did work for us was trying to work on different ways of getting DD to fall asleep.  Lying next to her rubbing her back, walking with Daddy, patting her bottom (tummy sleeper), rocking, cuddling, stroking forhead, singing....etc etc.

Then I would usually glance at the clock the next waking after a nursing and if it was less than about 1,5-2hrs ago I would *try* one of our other methods (usually the easier ones - cuddle, backrub, saying shhh, shhh) eg - if she woke at 2.30am and I last nursed her at 1am I'd try something other than nursing....  If that didn't work I'd go ahead and nurse, but sometimes it did work. And the amount of times it worked started increasing.  It didn't really buy me any extra sleep in the short term, but after a few months my Hubby was able to do some of the cuddling etc and this meant I could start sleeping in 2-3hr chucks.  At around 13/14mths we changed the family bed so DD slept next to hubby.  He would try and soothe her with every waking and only pass her over to me for milk if she wouldn't settle (and took her back once she was done - it was bliss - I got so much sleep!).  This reduced the night nursing down to about 2x a night.

She is now 19mths and weaned completely - she went off the taste of my milk when I was in 2nd trimester of preg, and still wakes up about 2x a night for a quick cuddle or a drink of water.  So night-weaning doesn't neccessarily mean sleeping through the night.

Hope that helps/

[JamieB]

Here is my story.  I was nursing my nine month old DS1 throughout the night every night and then one night he slept all night.  That kinda made me think he might not need to eat at night.  The next night when he woke up I rocked him instead of nursing him and he was asleep within minutes without one single tear.  He slept the rest of the night and within a week he was STTN.  No tears and it did not affect our nursing relationship.  I decided to do the same thing with DS2 around the same age.  Started rocking him at night instead of nursing.  He didn't sttn for a while after that but all he needed was to be tucked back in during the night.  He sleeps through the night now though, at 14 months.  I consider this pretty good for some of the stories I read on here.  Probably just luck I realize.

OP there is no rule that says you have to nurse your baby every time she wakes at night.  Actually, I really believe that just makes things harder in the long run.  Your baby is probably just going through natural sleep cycles and might not necessarily be hungry.  I wouldn't put a time limit on nursing or anything like that.  Just try rocking baby back to sleep or patting or walking with her.  If she is truly hungry, she will let it be known and you then you can feed her.  This might actually be a lot less gentle than actually nightweaning an older baby that is set in their ways. 

[karen1968]

If you are side-lying nursing or sleep nursing, you might consider that your little one is just snacking, and not getting a good feed. Consider getting up, or at least sitting up, and making sure s/he is getting a good feed - listen to the swallow pattern, use breast compression, facial stroking, etc., to keep him eating until he seems actually full. By doing tis, you will fill his tummy and he might sleep longer between wakings.

I personally got less sleep with side-lie nursing because of the way I'd need to be positioned (large breasts, small baby). When I got up and gave DS a good feed, I'd be awake for ~30 minutes, but then we'd both sleep 3+ hours before the next feed.  During a "sleep regression", though, all bets are off!

HTH!