I'm considering night weaning. DD is 22 months old and nighttime nursing is the only time I genuinely dislike nursing—mostly because she's handsy at night and I've tried everything to stop it and she just continues. That's not the point of this post though. Right now she nurses 1-3 times a night. On a "good" night, she goes to sleep at 8:30pm and doesn't wake up until 5-6am, nurses once to sleep, then wakes up around 7am. She sleeps in her own bed (a twin mattress on the floor in her room) and usually when I nurse her back to sleep I fall asleep in her bed.Â
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I don't really mind the "good" nights, but it's when she has "bad" nights that bother me. Sometimes she wakes up a 1am then 3am then 5am, then 7am for the day. She has always woken frequently at night, but getting used to her waking one time and then she suddenly wakes every two hours. It just throws me off. On top of that, with her being handsy during nighttime nursing, I end up staying awake because I'm pushing her hands off and when she's handsy, it takes a while for her to get back to sleep. We're also planning on trying to get pregnant relatively soon and I don't think my supply will stick around because I've always had issues with keeping it up, so I don't want her to rely on the milk to sleep and then have it suddenly be gone and her trying to nurse to sleep and she can't.Â
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So I'm wondering about night weaning. At what age did you night wean? Could a 22 month old even be ready? Could she understand if I tried the "no milk until the sun comes up" approach? How did you night wean? My husband could help. What do I do if she gets hysterical at night? Any time that I've ever tried to just comfort her back to sleep and not give her milk she literally goes nuts. She thrashes around and has tantrums. She won't let me touch her. She's entirely inconsolable. Entirely beyond reason. How do I reason with her when she's beyond reason!?Â
