Night weaning... how and when?

[ZakareyasMama]

Background...

DS is almost 7 months. We co-sleep with a sidecarred crib next to the bed, but he stays snuggled in the actual bed with us. He has always been a voracious nurser. He started foods just before six months and *loves* them and water. I don't think his level of nursing went down at all with the introduction of foods. He is pretty big for his age and has four teeth already. 

So at night he wants to nurse almost constantly. He won't sleep unless I'm laying in the bed with him nursing and wakes up several times during the night and wants to nurse back to sleep. If I don't wake up, he will self-serve. He won't use a pacifier and doesn't suck on his fists or hands. 

This arrangement has worked beautifully for us for months, but the problem is that it's sort of starting to get on my nerves a little bit. I don't know how to explain it. It doesn't bother me a lot... but I don't want it to get to the point that I resent it KWIM? We would like to start trying for another baby, but who knows when I'll get my PPP and I can see all-night nurse-a-thons being really annoying during pregnancy anyway. 

Any advice? Support? Is this normal for his age? Should I be feeding him more food? How did you night wean?

[liberal_chick]

Yes, it is normal for the age.  I found that my kids actually slept better from birth to 6 months than they did between 6 and 12 months.

I frequently hear my ds3's (my current nurser) growl at night.  And I generally won't night wean until after their first birthday anyway, so we still night nurse and he's 11 months old.  We'll probably look at night weaning sometime in the next 3 months and I think the easiest way, for us, will just be to have my dh handle the night wakings.