Night weaning, but will it help?

[Still_Learning]

Dd is 30 months and is an all night nurser. Starting from about midnight until we get up at 6:30 she stays attached. I can't do it anymore, I'm less of a mom during the day because I'm tired and grumpy.

So last night was our first milky free night. The only comfort that worked was holding her and walking the floors. As long as I did this, she was happy. She didn't actually ask to nurse, just couldn't sleep without it. She understands that we are done with milky at night and seems fine with it really

So, how do we get from walking the floors to sleeping in bed? I'm hoping that over the next week, she'll just stop waking to nurse, but I'm worried I'm just giving up one crutch for an even more difficult one.

[D_McG]

I would try to stay in bed if you can.  with mine i gave them the option of drinking some water or listening to me hum/sing.   There was some crying of course but one of us was there. It only took a couple of nights before they stopped waking!

[dancinganya]

I am on the same boat.  We are three weeks into nightweaning and bedtime nursing weaning.  I have stayed strong on not nursing my 2.5 year old daughter to sleep, but she still wants it and cries at times.  I either rock or walk her to sleep and two LOVELY nights she let me lie in the bed cuddling her while she fell asleep.  Tonight she was upset about not nursing and would only calm with me walking her for nearly an hour.  She is not a large child by any means, but I just couldn't hold her and walk her for that long.  I finally calmed her enough to rock her, but honestly I would much rather her learn to fall back asleep in the bed.

When she wakes in the middle of the night, my husband goes to her for the first waking and she screams for me but only for 5 seconds and then falls asleep immediately as he sings her to sleep while lying next to her.  On the second waking, I was walking and rocking her but couldn't transfer her to the bed and spent many a night walking or rocking her for an hour or two.  Finally a few nights ago I let myself nurse her at 3am for her second waking.  I was hoping it would be closer to 5am, but I just can't be up for 1 to 2 hours in the middle of the night.  I have no energy for the day.

Anyway, that's my story.  Let me know if you figure out any magic tricks!  I like to tell my daughter stories as our new lights out thing to do together (which she does really like) and I'm going to try to tell the stories in bed now instead of in the rocking chair.  Hopefully that will get her calm in bed, though often times she gets so excited about the stories that when I stop she continues the story chatting away... cute but exhausting...

[MamaTangerine]

My DD had to be walked in order to sleep, too, when we night-weaned her at the start of my pregnancy.  She was 21 months old.  We moved her to her own twin bed in our bedroom at that time, too, because if she'd still slept next to me, night-weaning would have been torturous and taken forever.  DH took over the nighttime parenting when we night-weaned her, so he did the endless walking.  It went on for maybe two months, I'd say.  DH gradually reduced the amount of time he would walk her before laying down with her in her bed.  There was definitely crying and protesting during that time, but it was just understandable anger that she couldn't have what she was used to.  It was sad to hear her cry, but she was old enough to realize why she couldn't have her way.  Eventually she started asking for her bed after a little bit of walking.  I think we could have ended the walking phase more quickly than we did (albeit with more tantrums).  She now sleeps much more soundly than she ever did in our bed.  Many nights she sleeps through the night.  When she does occasionally wake, DH goes and lays with her and she almost always falls back to sleep quickly unless she's sick or had a nightmare.  I've been a much happier mama and a much, much happier pregnant mama since we night-weaned.  

Good luck to you!  It'll probably be painful but hopefully quick to make the transition from walking to just laying with her to sleep.