I still BF my 18 month old in the mornings, before bed and on the weekends whenever he wants. He's still waking up 2x a night wanting to nurse for about 5 minutes each time. He's in his own room/crib. It's been 18 months of night feedings and this tired mama is ready to night wean! Looking for gentle night weaning tips. Thanks!
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Following! I have a 17 month old boob monster
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@knittylady: Looks like we aren't night weaning any time soon huh?
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@NorCalWayfarer: ha, your comment made me laugh. I have a 4 month old boob minster who I know is going to give me trouble down the line.... With my first, I was feeding him 1x overnight still at 7/8 months old and I wanted to stop, doc said u should. So one night I just didn't nurse, rubbed his back. I think DH helped, and he fell back asleep. Woke up the next few nights then it was done. A couple tears, but nothing crazy. It was easier than I built it up to be for sure - hopefully that will be the case for you!
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Each time I dropped a nursing session my husband had to take over for a few days. When my daughter was 18 months when I weaned her. For night weaning my husband would go In and rub her back until she went to bed. It took about 3 days before she just slept through the night.
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Haha, mine is still a boob monster as well! I'm pregnant which has a) drastically lowered my supply.. I'm pretty sure he's dry nursing at this point, and b) made it excruciating and no longer a 'bonding experience'. I can tell he's starting to get frustrated as well. So I've decided to wean this month, starting with daddy putting him to bed every other night (aka no boob) and moving to cold turkey after we get back from vacation next week. I'll let you know how it goes
P.S. DH started handling the slowly dwindling MOTN wake-ups a few weeks ago with a sippy of milk and some snuggles. He takes a sip or two of the milk and pushes it away and will go back down pretty easily for him. If I were to try that he'd be in full meltdown mode so I'm glad DH is willing to take it on.
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Ughhh I am right there with you with my 17 month old. She still wakes up several times to nurse, and I'm not talking about a quick nurse, usually 20+ minutes until I finally give in around 2 am and she nurses off and on the rest of the night in my bed.
I've tried a couple of times to night wean her and I've made it no more than a few nights either time because she is SO sad about it and I don't have any will power at 2 am. Unfortunately for me, my husband works nights so I don't have the option of him taking over.
For now I think I'm going to try to make it until a specific time before I will nurse her, maybe 12? If she wakes up before then I will either try to sooth her while she's still in the crib or just rock her to sleep (another issue I will have to address later) without the boob. No clue if this will work, I'm kind of making it up as I go!
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I think I stopped nursing him at night close to that age (maybe 20 months?), by going gradually. I told him if he woke up before 3, he couldn't nurse. He cried/fussed one or two nights, I played a soothing lullaby video that got him back to sleep. Then gradually I said no nursing before 4, then 6. Then he stopped waking up overnight to ask for it. Every once in a while he still will, but he's been really good about just falling right back asleep when I say no. (He sleeps in his own bed, but in our room.)
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@thismustbetheplace: Yeah I think I'm going to have to recruit the husband to help with this. He does great putting him to bed, but he's SUCH a sound sleeper that I have trouble waking him up in the middle of the night to go tend to the baby!
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I sent DH in and he offered water. It wasn't that bad.
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We just recently night weaned and were pretty successful within a few days. We do take him into our bed when he wakes so it may not be so easy for you. At night we would take a little cooler upstairs with a cup of milk. When he woke looking for the boob we would just offer regular milk instead. He did cry a bit but would go back to sleep with a few sips of milk. Eventually regular milk wouldn't work so I'd have to give in but I tried to push that time further and further back - so 1 am then 2am, etc. He is pretty good now and is actually sleeping until 6 am sometimes! And he knows that he doesn't get to nurse until at least 5:30 or 6 now.
I night weaned my older DS in a similar way, except he was a little younger and easier. If I took him in bed and just turned my back to him, he'd go to sleep. My younger DS gets pissed when I turn my back to him and starts pulling my hair and climbing over me. So the same thing will not work for all kids! Good luck and I hope you get some sleep soon! -
I night weaned at 11 months, so younger, but it went pretty smoothly. We were down to one session at that point, but I suspect you could do this for one session then the other or both at the same time.... Here's the process:
Night 1: go in and nurse, time the session
Night 2: go in and nurse but stop 1-2 minutes sooner than night 1 (if you're down to 5 min now, stop at 3 or 4min) if it is comfort nursing, do a minute cuddling/soothing then back to bed.
Night 3: drop another 1-2 minutes
Rinse and repeat until you are down to 0. When you get to the 0 minute night you can either just go in to comfort only or send in dad/partner. -
My son is 17mo and I just stopped a few days ago. He whines and cries a little, but it's way easier to get him down!
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