Anyone nursing? - Page 3 « Back to Group Discussions

[etsdtm99]

My DD is 23 months and we night weaned over the last 3 weeks..  It has been wonderful for our sleep.. and i did it more gradually than i did with my other kids, there was only a few nights where she got really upset about it and she wasn't hysterical and she was in our bed .. she still nurses to sleep and if i'm not in bed yet and she wakes up i'll let her nurse (though now that she is night weaned she is only waking up once most nights, at about 1-4am and she gets out of  her bed and goes right back to sleep in our bed with a cup of water),  with th enight weaning i started out cutting her off after 15 mins instead of letting her nurse for 2-5+ hours overnight - i just couldn't handle it, it hurt so bad and one of my nipples was raw and got a scab because she wasn't latching right on top of the pregnancy soreness.. She still asks constantly during the day but i limit her to ever 2-3 hours .. and she is getting better...  I really wanted to wait until she was 2+ to night wean, i made it to 20-something weeks pregnant with #3 before i had to nightwean DS, but only made it to 12 weeks the first time and nightweaned my 1st when she was only 19 months .. the big difference this time is the day time nursing..  my other 2 kids lost interest in nursing except first thing in the morning and before bed/nap at the end of the 1st trimester and this time DD is not losing interest at ALL i'm really hoping she will cut back before baby comes but i'm not going to push it too much.. I'm mainly working on setting limits and letting her know that she can't just nurse anytime she wants - I tell her not now, offer her a snack or a fun activity, and tell her when we will nurse (in an hour, before bed, etc)   -- even with the once a day, or less nursing that my other kids did we went on to tandem nurse, in my experience you don't need milk to keep a 2 year old nursing, as long as they still nurse enough not to forget how, they get more interested again once the milk comes back .. (my DD/DS tandem nursed for 11 months and my DS/DD2 tandem nursed for 21 months, DS didn't wean until right after i got pregnant this time, i guess at 4 he didn't appreciate the change in the milk)
 

[jenifera2]

Caitlin will be 2 next weekend and is nursing a lot less than she was at the beginning of the pregnancy. Nipple soreness is also a lot less, which is a relief. I think we're going to have to hit night weaning pretty hard soon, too, but I dread it. She screams and pitches a fit if I'm just slower than she'd like at night, so I'm afraid it won't be pretty. But then last night she kept asking for milk, then screaming (high pitched banshee scream, not crying) if I touched her, so that was awful too. She's not sleeping well at all, or rather not enough. She's getting to sleep around 9:30 each night and waking about 7, and then not always napping well either. I think she's thoroughly sleep deprived and having a rough time handling it, but still won't go to sleep even though she and I lie down together to nurse to sleep sometimes as early as 7:30.

She doesn't always wake at night to nurse, but when she does it's often several times during the night, which is impossible for me to keep handling.

I've seen the Dr. Jay Gordon method for night weaning, and in theory it makes sense, except I know it will result in lots of tears (but I expect any method will), and he also calls for a pretty short period of time called "night", like 6 hours. That doesn't make much sense to me for a 2-year-old. Are others getting longer stretches of sleep than that from kids this age? Are there other methods that have worked with little ones really, really attached to those night time boobs?

[Chloe'sMama]

Both my girls were down to 1-2 night nursing sessions when I night weaned.... dd1 actually did it on her own when there was not very much milk and more trouble than it was worth. Dd2 I just said the milk comes out when the sun comes up.... she never really screamed and cried. She fussed for a few minutes for a few weeks, but now she is pretty good most days. I would talk to her about it for a few days in advance.... then just give it a try. Make sure you have some water close by.... they get thirsty if they are used to milk at night. My girls were pretty easy.

Dd2 goes to bed at 7:30 or 8 and wakes up at 7ish. She may wake up, but goes right back to sleep.

[Gray's Mommy]

I'm so happy that we are down to once a day with nursing. That normally happens at night time and it is for about 30 seconds before he rolls over. I'm sleeping a little bit better & he's sleeping ALOT better! I'm a little bit sad, but welcome the break before a new little one joins us.

[BaMo]

We are down to 4-5x a day and DD is STTN! Yeah! Of course, now I have to get up and pee.

[josie423]

I'm still nursing. My DS is nine months now. He's very into solids and his homemade goat's milk formula, so that's mainly what he gets during the day. He still nurses 1-3 times at night.

[etsdtm99]

what i did for night weaning was similar to the jay gordon method - but i followed my DD's lead and didn't really take as long as that method says..  my 23 mo old is going 11-12 hours without nursing now, i have always night weaned from zero to all night, it seems to work better for us than picking a 6-7 hour stretch... she goes to bed (nurses to sleep) at 7pm and she usually wakes up between 6 and 7am - she is allowed to nurse after 7 .. she doesn't even ask for milk when she wakes in the middle of the night, she wakes sometime between midnight and 4am and moves from her bed (in our room) to our bed) my ODD went straight to sttn after night weaning, my DS still woke to come to our bed most nights until he was 3.5 ..