Nightweaning woes - someone please tell me this gets better.

[shakyjelly]

Okay. I'm at my wit's end. I had intended to do child led weaning, but due to some medical stuff, I need to wean a little earlier. It's not a RUSH, but I need to be wrapped up in the next few months if possible. SO, we got him down to twice (pre-nap and pre-sleep) during the day, but he's still nursing like crazy at night. It's not like he's replacing his day nursing, as he's ALWAYS been attached all night long. We started really making the push to night wean over the last couple weeks since I'll be out of town for the first time ever this weekend.

It is NOT going well. He refuses to buy it. We've been trying Dr. Jay Gordon's approach. We've tried weaning more difficult to nurse shirts. We've tried having me come sleep on the couch. Once he's up, he's up for the rest of the night unless I let him fall asleep on the breast. My husband and I are going insane. We weren't getting much sleep before because of all the switching sides in the middle of the night and his occasional night waking to begin with... now it's even worse. He screams and gets really upset when my husband explain to him that "mommy and her milk are sleeping, but you can have milk in the morning". He's a really smart kid, so he understands, but he just does NOT agree. 

Please, someone, give me some advice...or just some support. Tell me that I may eventually get some sleep. :( I feel so bad, but I'm thinking about stopping trying the rest of this week so I can get over the tail end of this cold I have before going to my conference this weekend. I just don't know what my hubby will do. My son won't take cow's milk AT ALL (he drinks kefir instead) and won't take mommy's milk from a cup/bottle/anything. :(

[MarianneH]

Just a little support here, and our story... we decided to nightwean our 2 year old DS about a month ago (he had been nursing every 1-3 hours at night), and it got significantly better after about a week - although he still wakes up at night, but not inconsolable.  We told him no 'nana' till the sun comes up and just stuck with it.  The first night he was up at 12am and cried off and on till 2, when he was so exhausted he fell asleep.  He woke up crying a couple of other times before morning but wasn't up for as long.  That night was the worst.  Since then he has never been unhappy for more than about 5-10 min. in the night; I offer him soy milk in a sippy cup, which he likes, and occasionally we end up having a snack in the kitchen in the middle of the night.... but no 'nana.' After about 2 weeks of nightweaning we decided not to let him nurse to sleep at bedtime any more, which was also a difficult transition, but he adapted surprisingly quickly, after which he started sleeping at least a 6-8 hour stretch (I thought he would NEVER do that!)  Being consistent was really important in the process, but it also helped that he was ready to make the change (we had half-heartedly attempted before, and given up), and DH and I were too (just found out I'm pregnant).   I hope it goes well for you!