Need advice---Nightweaning/first time 2 y.o. DD will be away from mama

[MamaOnTheGo]

Hey mamas!

DD just turned 2 in September.  We cosleep and she nurses a couple of times a night. I'm seeing a guy I really like who currently lives in another state, and he's coming for a visit next weekend.  My sister has offered to take care of DD for the weekend so we can get away together and spend some quality time, which I am SO grateful for and excited about, but I'm feeling really guilty about leaving her.  We've never been apart for longer than a few hours, and since she isn't night weaned, I feel like that would be a pretty abrupt change.  My sister has kids of her own and has lots of experience comforting teary kids through hard times (she's planning on sleeping with DD), but I wanted to ask your advice and see if you all had any tips or advice on making things easier.  Should I try to start night weaning now so she's not expecting "ninny" when I'm gone? (Night weaning is something I've been thinking about for the last year, but just continued night nursing because it's never been "the perfect time").  Or do you think that would add even more disruption to the change of having no mama for a night since we only have a week to get used to it?  The weekend plans were totally last minute, so I'm feeling pretty guilty that I'm not giving DD more preparation :(  She is a kid who does REALLY well when she knows what to expect... I know she'll be fine, but I just want to make things as easy as possible on everyone involved.

I do think that I'm ready to start night weaning soon, regardless of whether or not we start before next weekend.  Do any of you guys have advice or resources you could refer me to about strategies that worked for you/were fairly painless?  We don't have another parent to take over nighttime stuff, and we don't have another room for me to move into during the transition days (those are two strategies I've read about, so just wanted to rule those out).  We currently nurse in bed, and I'm thinking that should stop for sure.  She's pretty smart, so saying the ninnies are "sleeping" might not gel very well---she knows all about asleep and awake, and knows that when we sleep, we get ninny.  Can you think of a good excuse to give her for why we need to stop nursing at night?  Like I said--she does really well when she has an explanation for things and knows what to expect.  I just need to figure out how to explain things so they'll make sense.

Thanks so much in advance for your input, ladies!

[Lazurii]

Here's my experience.

My MIL and SIL came for a visit and forced The Hubby and I to get a hotel room and spend the night away from the kids.  Twisted our arms, I tell ya!  My son is nightweaned but my daughter is not.  I have a sister living with us, so my sister took Doozer for the night and slept with her.  She did really well!  She woke up a few times and cried for a bit, and towards morning she needed to be walked for a few minutes, but other than that she did good.  If I had tried to to that with her it would have been a huge fit all night long.  I think it worked so well because Doozer knew my sister couldn't nurse her and I wasn't home.

Does your daughter know your sister well?  That helps a lot with the sleep over.  Would she be willing to come stay at your place?  The less changes the better.

Maybe instead of nightweaning right now you can just talk about your weekend trip to prepare her for it.  Maybe tell a story about how you're going to go have fun with a friend and she's going to have fun with her Auntie.  Maker her stay with your sister like a party to look forward to, with treats and a movie and, if she's into it, a special blanket or something snuggly.

When you actually decide to nightwean look into a guy named Gordon.  I heard he's really good and that's the plan we're going to use when I nightwean Doozer in a few months.

HTH!