DH and I are all set to try night-weaning using this approach (http://drjaygordon.com/attachment/sleeppattern.html), but I wanted to see if anyone had any personal experiences using this approach and how it went! It seems that a lot of people have had success with it, but I do have my apprehensions about it. I'll admit, I was okay with letting DS cry-it-out in the beginning when he was under one, but now that he is older (17 months), it is sooooo much harder to listen to his cries, so we've settled on a gentler approach.
What I'm most afraid of is what DS will be like at those moments that he is not offered milk. Obviously, he will be *VERY VERY* understandably upset. DS is not the super cuddly type. I don't think patting or rubbing his back will help at all. He'll just get more upset that I'm not picking him up. On the other hand, if I do pick him up and hold him until he stops crying, he'll cry again when I put him down. If I hold him until he falls asleep, I'm afraid he'll wake up and cry again. I can literally imagine this going on for hours! He has no troubles falling asleep on his own for the night, but he can't go back to sleep on his own when he wakes up in the middle of the night because of the nursing.
Then, I'm afraid that after we successfully night-wean, he'll still be waking up at those times and instead of the quick-fix of nursing, I'll be up with him for hours at a time! HELP!!!!
So, I hope those of you who've tried this will say that it gets better!