Weaning and need some advice/feedback

[LizzieRed]

Well, it seems like we might have just weaned!  My DD (28 months) would just not night wean.  We have co-slept her whole life, and have tried gentle ways of night weaning off and on since 18 months, and she had recently begun to insist on sleeping latched on from midnight until morning.  Any attempts to limit her nursing have been met with extreme resistance.  At night when she "wakes" she is not really fully awake so it is pretty futile to try and reason with her.  I was at the end of my rope and we decided to try weaning fully when we moved into a new house this month. 

It has been 4 days/nights of no Mom's Milk.  The first night she protested and fought sleep and was up several times, but each night has gotten better and last night she slept in her big girl bed all night, only waking once.  So the limits didn't work for her, but she seems to understand the all or nothing approach and is adjusting quickly.

But

I am having an unexpectedly hard time!!!  I am extremely engorged and very sad about the loss of the closeness of nursing.  If I had my wish DD would nurse at bedtime and again in the morning.  Given our long drawn out battle about nighttime nursing, does anyone think there is a way to get back to this?  She's doing so well without milk (which is unexpected given our history) I am afraid of introducing any at all...but am really sad too. 

I am trying to do what is best for her...since she is handling this well...does that just mean this was the right time for her?

[spicy tomato]

Ahhh! I just read this after posting my own note about having a hard time with weaning. It is nice to know I am not alone in these feelings of loss. 

I used to tell my son before nursing at night that he could not have milk until the sun came up. When he did wake I would ask him if the sun was out yet (also co-sleeping in adjacent bed). It worked for us. If he was sick I would give in and sometimes even encourage night weaning and then we would have a few days struggle to get back on track. We have been on this schedule for over six months, well until this week.