How to Wean Baby from Night Nursing?

Just went through this with my now 18 month. For him no bottle (from me anyway worked) and never took a binky. But what has seemed to work for us was getting a "lovey" and my husband took over the night duties for about 2 weeks. I started putting my older son down for the night, while my hubby did the baby.

At first it worked this way, but he was still waking 2-3 times a night, and my hubby said it was getting harder and harder for him to get up and soothe him to sleep. So the second week he asked if we could let him cry a little, surprisingly he didn't really cry that long before he went back to sleep. I made a deal with the hubby if he woke before 1am we would "make" him cry it out. After 1am we would go in and soothe him. By the second day of the second week, he no longer woke at 1 am, and so we were down to just the 3-4am wake up! Which at that point my hubby would rock and put him back down. But that one even disappeared after I started putting him back to bed for the night with his "last" nursing session. It was as if the that one comforting nursing session was FINALLY enough to get him through the night.

He just started waking again at about 2am cries for about 20 minutes, but puts himself back to sleep (he's cutting all 4 of his eye teeth). I even left for the first time over night and left my hubby to take care of him with no problems at all.

Good luck each baby is different so you will have to read his cues and see what really works for him. My first was a binky baby and we pretty much went cold turkey with no problems. My lil' guy at 18mths still nurses down for nap and bedtime, but at least the comfort night nursing is gone.

I should also forewarn you tho', during those 2 weeks where he didn't get to comfort nurse. He was a bare during the day horribly cranking and all over me wanting to nurse, which by that point we were pretty much day weaned. So we regressed during the day, which was difficult but I was so relieved to finally have more than 2 hrs of sleep :)

Good luck

Here is an excellent article on night weaning -- it's written from a cosleeping perspective, but I'm sure that you can adapt the methods to your situation.

http://drjaygordon.com/attachment/sleeppattern.html

I also have to second the idea that if possible, someone else should go to comfort him when he wakes and wants to nurse. Night weaning my third (he's now 25 months) didn't take until his dad started doing the nighttime comforting.

I'm working on this with my 9 month old... Last night she finally skipped her first session. I set a time limit that I would NOT feed her before 1:00am, and again at 5:00. I had to watch the clock. So when she was waking up at 12:00 or whenever, I would do my best to get her back to sleep. I spent a few nights where she would settle down, only to throw a fit when I put her back in her crib. Eventually she stopped waking up before the time limits (at least, within 15 minutes of them). Then, I started only letting her nurse for a couple minutes instead of letting her 'satisfy' herself. By last week, she only needed to be picked up for her first feeding and she would fall right asleep. Last night, she completely skipped it. I still let her nurse at 5:00, because by then I believe that she really is hungry (9 month growth spurt and all...) CIO just isn't an option for us, since she sleeps in our room... and we are living with my in-laws, so we try to keep her quiet as possible at night.

Start helping him find new ways to sooth at night when he wakes up. My boys did this at 2 months.

Do you have a husband or partner/significant other that can go to him in the middle of the night to comfort him. All he is going to want from you is the comfort nursing -- you are not the one who would be in the best position to break him from this behavior. I went with CIO myself and dropped one nursing session at a time (my son was getting up 3 times a night at 10 mos old and I work full time during the day and had a 27 mo old as well). We started with the middle of the night session -- once I let him CIO for that one (he RARELY cried for more than 20 minutes -- maybe 1 or 2 times) he ended up not waking for the 3rd session. Eventually, he stopped waking altogether for any of the sessions...but he was never really a comfort nurser - so he never picked up an alternative to nursing. My daughter started sucking her thumb -- and still does at 3.5 years old.

I agree with you that it isn't fair to your mom to deal with this in 2 mos so I would start now....good luck!

Do you co-sleep? If so, I will be VERY interested in whether or not you find a solution....

I am very much in your same situation, but my big boy wakes up MUCH MORE often. It's killing me! He was a WONDERFUL sleeper (well, by my standards) until he was 8 months old. And I'll be leaving town soon too.

With our 2 other boys to tend to, I am not sure what the night nurser is gonna do to DH!

Please post an update if you find something that works!

Honey-you have to let him cry-it is one of the toughest things to do-it is utterly heart wrenching-but you can do it-everyone will be better off-and you will be surprised how quickly it works. He will learn to self soothe. Good luck:(