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We did not until she was about 13 months old.

I was away from her during the day and I felt she needed to connect and keep up with calories.

@maybebaby: I don't think there is a set right or wrong it has to be what you're comfortable with. I wasn't comfortable even contemplating it until he was about 8 months when he was eating decent meals of table foods. He weaned on his own terms just before 9 months.

i agree that there is no set right or wrong, and you have to do what's right for you and your baby (some people are okay with keeping the night feeding for a much longer time, others are not--i'm of the latter category).

my friend with twins went to the pediatrician at 4 months, and the ped said they could night wean at that point, so they did, and it worked very very well.

around the 4-month mark, my LO started to push his night feeding back further and further--a few times he woke for his night feeding only 1.5 hours before his wake-up time. so i shortened the MOTN nursing session and tried to put him back to bed. it was kind of hit or miss. a few times he fussed then went back to sleep, but other times he fussed for more than 10 minutes so i went back to nurse him to sleep. eventually he dropped it on his own--it might have been luck, though.

i just replied on another thread that we had to do a short-lived night weaning. LO had been sleeping through the night for a while but he had a fluke fall one day and woke up in the middle of the night screaming/crying. apparently his tooth had been knocked loose and fell out. we didn't realize it at the time, and gave him a bottle and he sucked down 8 oz. the next night, he woke up again screaming, and i think it's because he wanted a bottle. since i knew he was no longer in pain and knew he could go all night without a feeding, we just tried to comfort him and then put him to bed when he tired himself out. it was hard--1.5 hours of crying/soothing/screaming in the middle of the night is not fun. but there was no way i was going back to night feedings after months of STTN. the next couple of night he squawked for a few minutes but then went to sleep. i was super motivated not to restart night feedings--hell no!

sorry for the novel.

We still do one or two night feeds at eleven months but Miss A has STTN on occasion in the past. For me personally I'm happy to keep up the night feeds as LO is very active and doesn't yet eat alot of solids, she also wakes for comfort rather than hunger.

DS isn't here yet, but I read an interesting book called 12 hours of sleep by 12 weeks. The basic principles are that once baby is a certain weight (10lbs maybe?) *and* eating at least 24 oz per day, then you can night wean. The author suggests starting with one night feeding, and reducing it by either time (if nursing) or oz (if bottle fed) a little for a few days, then drop down a little more until you're not doing it. Then tackle another night feed.

No idea if it works or not, but we think it's worth a try when we're ready.

@maybebaby: I had the same issue! Don't forget "STTN" means different things to different people, some folks say it when babies sleep 6 hrs (12-6), others 8 hrs (9-5). I had our 4 month appt this week and our ped said she should be consistently doing an 8 hr stretch, which she is -just for us, it's 8-4! Then she's back down til 6 or 7.

I did a TON of reading on various sleep websites last week asking the same question about if having 1 night waking is unusual at this age and if we can night wean, and agree with others ... it's incredibly common to have one night waking upwards of 6, 7, 8 months and beyond. I think your ped should definitely make the call (and Isis says the same).

Especially considering I found out our little nugget only weighs 12.5 lbs at 4+ months, I definitely am not ready to try and night wean her yet. The main thing I will look for is when it seems she's nursing for comfort rather than hunger. Now her feeding lasts a good 10-12 mins (long for her).. once it's down to less than 7ish, I'll assume she wasn't that hungry to start.

@maybebaby: @JoJoGirl: I have yet to meet a nursing full time WOHM whose baby STTN - like 8+ hours. I remember people trying to tell me how to sleep train, etc., because J wasn't sleeping straight through (and didn't until 9.5 months, AF returned shortly after).
I knew that he needed me at night after being apart for 9 hours. It's totally normal to have them wake once or twice (more when teething, growth spurt, etc).

@maybebaby: I think our LOs are just a few days apart and we still have consistently two wakeups per night. Although I'm tired I'm not doing anything to discourage it because I am back to working full time, and I want to protect my supply and nurse as much as possible so I don't have to leave so much milk during the day. I also don't want to deprive her of closeness if she is making up for missing me during the day. So you're not alone in the night waking! I don't think we've ever had a night with even just a single wakeup, we always have at least two.

@hilsy85: i know, i know!

@hilsy85: good thing they're so freaking cute.

She night weaned herself around a year, which is when we stopped cosleeping and she crib trained. There were days when she still nurses during the night, but that's usually when she is sick or teething. At 16 months I would say maybe 3 times a month now she needs to nurse overnight.

@oliviaoblivia: Th author makes sure to stress that your baby needs to weigh enough (and again I'm not sure of that number) and to eat enough during the day before you can attempt to night wean. And the point of the method was to gradually reduce at a rate they're comfortable with. Not just let them cry it out and not feed them cold turkey. Seemed to make sense to me, but what do I know *shrugs*.

11 weeks.

DS kind of night weaned himself. He was waking up 1x at that point and the last week or so hadn't been nursing much at all. I tried giving him a paci instead of nursing (he was taking them at this time, thankfully), did it for 3 nts and he was weaned/STTN 11-12 hours the fourth night. He's been a pretty consistent STTN aside from teething. I think I've nursed him at night once since then and it was when he had a MOTN wakeup during cutting his top four teeth. He didn't even really want it -- but I thought it was 6am, when it was actually only midnight!

@maybebaby: oh you're not doing anything wrong at all! i didn't know if you were coming from a place of really needing the night feedings to be over. everybody's baby is NOT sleeping through the night at that age. i think it can feel that way because those with STTN babies tend to speak up more. i support you whatever you decide, mama!

@Bookish: lo did that too. She slept six straight the night we came home from the hospital and gradually increased that to 12 straight at 12 weeks. In the beginning I hated talking about it cause other moms would give me death stares.

@ShootingStar: sorry, I think my original post came off as harsh. Totally not intended. The magic weight is probably a lot higher. I hope when your LO gets here you have sleep success!

14 months

@maybebaby: @JoJoGirl: I know...we got very, very lucky. I hope you guys get some longer stretches soon! I'm sure my LO will make up for this magic period later with some epic tantrums or horrendous teenage years...

We sleep trained at 4 months, cause R wouldn't go to sleep on her own. After that she would STTN most nights, then started waking up at 5 to eat. Then it started getting earlier and earlier, and teething hit. We were back to multiple wakeups, but I don't think she was hungry, just wanted help going back to sleep. So at her 6 months appointment, the doctor said she doesn't need to eat in the middle of the night, and to let her CIO. So we did and she is now back to STTN. In return eating better during the day, taking better naps, and all around happier baby.