Older nursling won't wean

[CampingMandy]

Hi Everyone,

I'm new here and hoping I can get some suggestions for my dilemma.

My ds is turning five today (five years old) and he is still nursing.  I believe in child-led weaning, and my dd weaned at 4.5yrs when her brother came along.  The issue now, though, is that I also have a 4 m/o baby.  My ds went back to night waking shortly after the baby arrived, and now wakes to nurse even more frequently than the baby does.  He does not nurse during the day, although I'm sure he would if I said yes when he asked.

We also co-sleep (me, ds and baby) and I get that does add an extra conflict.  Last month I tried sleeping in a different room, but ds still woke, found me and wanted me to come to his bed to nurse him back to sleep.

Here's a typical night -- ds nurses to drowsy (I time it because if he nurses too long, he's up in the night having to pee or he wets the bed) and then he "hugs milk" until he's asleep.  He often gets upset when I ask if he's almost finished because he'd rather keep nursing.  Then during the night, he wakes three times or more.  If I'm nursing the baby and can't get to him right away, he cries, kicks the covers and has a mini-meltdown.  If/when I can get to him, it's a repeat of bedtime (timed nursing, getting annoyed that I'm making him stop, hugging milk to get back to sleep).

I've tried talking to him about it during the day, closer to bed time, and at bedtime.  He just says, "I know ..." and keeps going.  He's a "young" five year old, and isn't able to have a conversation about this, and isn't interested in trying other methods of falling asleep/getting back to sleep.

All help, advice, suggestions, etc. are welcome.

Peace,

Amanda

[parsley]

I don't have any advice.  Just .

I'm still nursing my 3 1/2 year old and can easily imagine her nursing at 5.  I don't know how I'll deal with it but I can understand you feeling a need to transition to a new stage of your relationship with your son.