nightweaning did not take!?

[nenareid]

Has anyone else had to go back to square one with nightweaning? About two weeks ago I began Dr. Jay Gordon's ten day plan for nightweaning. The first ten days were about what I expected. My DS is 32 months old and has been co-sleeping and BF since birth. The first night of no milk was bad (but expected) - over two hours of crying/anger/debate on his part and my remaining calm and telling him that mommy needs more sleep at night, nightime is for sleeping and that we will have milk in the morning. He fought me the first two nights and then began to roll over and go back to sleep with minimal soothing after that.

THEN after day 12 it was like day one all over again. For the last three nights he has been waking at about 2 am crying asking for milk, arguing and negotiating for two to three hours before falling back asleep. Has anyone else experienced this and will it end? EVER? By the way he is not sick, or teething, nothing out of the ordinary going on at home. Any thoughts? This is my first ever post so I must be desperate.

[forevermommy]

I don't have any suggestions or helpful thoughts I just wanted to say:

WOW - your son shares his birthday with my daughter.

WOW - your son is 32 months old and you're just nightweaning - good for you! I had to nightwean Zsanna around 20 months because the sleep deprivation was driving me insane. I think this led to an early weaning all together at 27 months.

I hope someone is able to help. Until then s

[nenareid]

thanks...

And good for you for having another Cancer baby! They are the sweetest!

I know I am crazy to have waited so long - I think that is why he is holding on.

[Momtwice]

Originally Posted by nenareid

I know I am crazy to have waited so long - I think that is why he is holding on.

If you're crazy, so am I and so are a lot of other moms.

It's normal...his need to nurse, your need to sleep..all of it. Somewhere there's another thread about this....found it! Lots of debate
http://mothering.com/discussions/sho...d.php?t=259075

(This is more of a "this is totally normal"
thread, not as many practical tips.)

[kikimama]

oh oh oh

I feel your pain. My girl is 24 months and we have been trying the dr.J.Gordon method in one fashon or another for what seems like a long time (about 6 months). Hang in there! Some children have a stronger attachment to night nursing is what I keep telling myself, and our children obviously are those children. One thing that has really helped in our situation is that my husband will take our daughter out of the room when I can't calm her. She really gets upset by this, but is able to calm down when he makes the 'deal' with her that she can come back to the room if she is willing to sleep without nursing. This may be a bad tactic, this deal making, but it works and we are able to all sleep.... which becomes really important when I am feeling weary eyed desperate! She now sleeps pretty much solid until 4 or 5 AM and I am pretty satisfied with this.
Good luck!

[Spookygirl]

DD was doing great with weaning, then we went through a rough patch, and I had to start all over again. But thankfully the second time around wasn't nearly as bad as the first.

[Ruthla]

It sounds to me like he's simply not ready for nightweaning. If he was ready, he would have adapted by now.

[nenareid]

thanks for the responses.

Thank you for the responses. I am not alone! It just seemed so straightforward according to the article...

My husband has tried to soothe him a few times and take him out of the room - but he becomes more irate.

I have had the thought that he might not be totally ready for nightweaning - but the problem is that I need some sort of change. At least a longer stretch of sleep. Some nights he does Ok and then every third night or so he just has a natural fit. UGH..

I am going to keep trying for while and see what happens.

[mom2alicia]

yes , i have had to go back to square one several times with my dd for nightweaning. it is frustrating because i thought once it was done and as long as i was consistent with her bedtime schedule and routine that would be it. but it hasn't been!

also some of the times i have discovered that she is actually thirsty! it is hard because my dd can't communicate well she has language delays. but one time when she was crying to nurse again, actually this was a time that i had nursed her twice on each side already! one of the reasons that i decided to night wean in the first place she wouldn't stop nursing, back and forth, side to side, wasn't satiated...anyway, i digress... i had the bright idea (duh!) to bring her downstairs and offer her a cup of water and she took a couple gulps and when i took her back upstairs she went right to sleep! i'm actually wondering how much milk i have left because she doesn't seem satisfied when she nurses..