[zane]

Ds 13mo, 28lbs and 32" tall. He is a reverse cycler and a "up every hour on the hour" sleeper. We cosleep.<br><br>
He has always been a reverse cycler. Doesn't have any bb from about 6am to 1-2pm ( I work part time). Now that he is mobile he is eating for shorter less frequent periods during the day.<br><br>
I would love to get more consecutive hours of sleep, and have been exploring night weaning. But would it be mean to try and night wean a reverse cycler? Would he start bf more during the day, or just move faster toward total weaning?<br><br>
Any BTDT advice would be great.<br><br>
Thanks

 

[nancg]

My older nursling wasn't quite so frequent, but she certainly did reverse cycle (I worked when she was little).<br><br>
That being said, one thing to consider is moving the child to a low bed of his own. Some nurslings really respond to being near the smell of mom, and just getting away from you might give you a longer stretch or two of sleep (make sure the bed has space for you, so once you go in to nurse you can sleep comfortably there for the last half of the night).<br><br>
My sense is that night-weaning is easier when the kid is a bit older - say, 18 months. At about that age you can do a lot more discussing/negotiating about what is happening, and the kid might buy it if you say "num-nums are going to sleep now". At 13 months I don't think they have enough sense of time or enough comprehension to buy this.<br><br>
I think some kids just get used to getting themselves back to sleep by nursing. I don't think night-weaning would force general weaning, though it might encourage him to eat more solid foods. You can always try it and see - that's the great thing about nursing past a year - you don't have to worry about supply so much and you can always reverse any partial weaning if it seems to be going badly.<br><br>
Nancy<br>
mom to Emily (4.5) and nursling Hazel (21 months)

 

[zane]

He does have his own double bed on the floor next to our bed. (Our bed is a regular mattress on a waterbed pedastal and was too high to safely cosleep such a fearless adventurer). He moved to his own bed months ago and we were really hoping that this would reduce night feeds.<br><br>
Nope.<br><br>
He starts to moan and get restless. I get in his bed and offer bb. He has a snack and goes back to sleep. Im supposed to get back into my bed, but more often than not fall asleep before I remember to move.<br><br>
I tried not responding to his every rustle but wait for him to wake up and call. That backfired. If he wakes up fully then he is AWAKE and it may take an hour or more to get him back to sleep. Or he might go right back down. Its a gamble. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/angry.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="angry"> So I am feeding him often as insurance I won't be walking the floor half the night. Which is dumb but I feel stuck.<br><br>
As a side rant: I would like to have a book burning. I am so sick of every "baby" book stating that babies sleep "through the night" at about 3mo. That sometimes happens but not often enough to be considered a rule. It sucks you in to believe that yours is the only baby in the universe still waking up 40 bazillion times at night and somthing is wrong with baby, with you, with your parenting style, blah, blah blah. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/demon.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="demon">

 

[nancg]

Wow. You've got a tough case, and you've tried all of my repertoire. I'm sure someone else has more wisdom on this.<br><br>
Nancy

 

[Angie676]

I PM'ed you but it sounds like you are already doing something along the lines of what I'm doing.<br><br>
I know what you mean about not letting the baby wake up totally. If I let Andrew fuss, most of the time he also will be up for 1-3 hours. Argh!<br><br>
Good luck, I hope something works for you. It may be that you are doing the right thing, and it will just take more time.

 

[abranger]

I would love to hear how this is going. I have a 17 month old daughter who also is reverse cycling. I work 3 days a week and she takes 1 sometimes 2 bottles of bm. She nurses every 1-3 hours at night. Last week she started refusing the bm at daycare. YIKES! I really want to nightwean her. I tried Dr Jay Gorden in dec and it really worked ...them she got sick teething pain yada yada. We tried again a few weeks ago and she SCREAMED BLOODY MURDER so we had to stop.<br><br>
Amy

 

[zane]

I only work part time and he has been refusing ebm in my absense for months. I think that for whatever reason the night nursing is still important to him right now. I guess I will just tough it out for a few more months. Maybe at 15 or 18 months I will try the jay gordon protocol. Or leave ds to sleep in the garage. <img alt="" class="inlineimg" src="http://www.mothering.com/discussions/images/smilies/irked.gif" style="border:0px solid;" title="irked">: Ok maybe not. I am wanting a few hours of consecutive sleep, not even a full night. I am just going to have to wait until he is ready to give it I guess.