Nightweaning success! ...until 4 am.

[expat-mama]

We started nightweaning our now 19 mo about 5 weeks ago. It was rough the first week then pretty smooth sailing after that. We sort of did Jay Gordon but without the first stage (nursing him for a few minutes then stopping just seemed to make him more upset).

I am ECSTATIC to say that now DS pretty much STTN ( after a year and a half of 4 to a million wakings per night) from 8pm till 4 am most nights. Sometimes he wakes once and goes easily back to sleep with back pats or music. Our original morning start time for nursing was 5 am and I was ok with that. I can't sleep when he nurses because he's very aggressive and wriggly so 5 am was wake up time for me even though he would doze on and off until 6 or so. But then he started pushing it earlier- 4:45, then 4:30. And I would give in because it was almost 5. But NOW, it's 4 on the dot every day and waking at that time makes my mornings pretty crappy.  

So for mamas who have BTDT, how did you push forward that morning nursing in a nightweaned baby?  

[sunwise]

I don't have any advice for the 4am nursing session, but I just wanted to say CONGRATS on the night-weaning! These kinds of stories give me hope....my 18-month-old is still waking frequently at night, but I want to start working on night-weaning (using the Gordon method) around 20 months. I hope it works as well for us as it did for you!

Did you use a 7-hour block of time designated for no nursing, as Dr. Gordon suggests? And how rough was that first week? (I feel like that's what I really need to prepare myself for...)

[nstewart]

OMG, I could have written your post (except DS still usually wakes up before 4, but then goes back down easily until 4 or so).  DS is the same age, we used the same method, pushed nursing until 5 and now he's waking earlier and earlier too!!  Last night I had to go into his room every fifteen minutes from 4 until 4:45 and then just gave in and nursed him and brought him to our bed (which I was doing at 5 despite the fact that, like your DS he is then all over the place and I get very little sleep!)  I am just trying to stick to my guns with more or less success depending on the night.

[expat-mama]

Thanks for the congrats on the nightweaning, sunwise. It was a hard decision after a long sleepless journey. 

We didn't do a 7-hr block really. Sometimes DS wakes up before dh and I are in bed and if he can't be settled by dh, then I would nurse him then it was night-night mama milk till morning. I tried to prepare DS for a long time before we started. I actually made a night-weaning book for him called "Mama Milk in the Day, Sleep in the Night". In it were pictures I drew of his favourite animals (sheep, horses) drinking mama milk during the day and doing other stuff and sleeping at night and pictures of him playing and nursing during the day and sleeping with mummy and daddy at night. The text was really simple and repetitive and really dragged the message out. He got the idea and when we started nightweaning both he and dh and I would quote things from the book. I think this was really helpful- DS is a bookworm and really absorbs info from books. DH thinks I should sell the book or make it into an ipad app!

Anyway, the first week or 5 days was hard. Sleepless. DS would wake at his normal times and take forever to get back down and would be very upset, thrashing around. We found the only thing that would calm him after he got worked up was really loud reggae music. We stayed with him in bed taking turns being the one to rub and pat his back and reassure him. The second night was the worst, the rest was downhill. He was fine during the day, his usual happy self but he did want to nurse a bit more during the day which is fine. 

Still not sure what to do about these mornings. Today we tried giving him a snack and he did eat it all so we think he may be getting hungry early in the morning. He is a big eater and a big nurser so from 8-5 IS a long time for him I think. But after we gave him a snack at 4 he was UP and there was nothing that could get him to sleep. He finally went back down at around 7. Ugh. Working on it. 

[3girls1boy]

I had a nightlight on a timer.  You can set the timer for anytime in the early a.m. that you are willing to nurse again.  Then I would just tell my little nursling, no the light isn't on, that means it's still sleeping time and Mommy's breasts are sleeping too.  I do definitely remember my son, pouncing on me at least once, the second it went on though.

[neonalee]

Hey expat! Congrats on the progress! We've had kind of the same issue. I've noticed that it seems the nights that he plays with his sis (my 13 year old SD chases him around & wears them both out) AND he gets PLENTY to eat for dinner he doesn't usually wake until our 5am nursing. I'm testing to find out what kind & how much food. He's picky so that doesn't help. Tonight right before getting ready for bed he had a big bowl of yogurt & half a banana. Fingers crossed. ...

sent from my phone using tapatalk, please forgive typos

[JudiAU]

Assuming he can nurse at 4 and you can both go back to sleep for a bit, I think it is reasonable. At least that is the time we are using. I am in the process of nigh-weaning my 2.5 year old. :::eye roll:::