Night-weaning a 9 Month Old

We night-weaned around 9 months too. While I am not opposed to some CIO in principle, if my son gets too worked up he will throw up, so we were hesitant to just not go in at all during the sleep training.
Instead, we picked a few days when my husband was sure to be home, and over a weekend so he wasn't working, and then he was the one who got up and went through. First night he gave a bottle with just a couple of ounces of expressed milk. Our son was confused that it wasn't me, and cried a bit, but after drinking a bit, he just dropped off. (Should say that at this point, my son was only waking up once per night to feed, max twice.) So then he'd sleep through till morning.
Second night, we halved the amount of expressed milk. Third night we were going to just give water - but then he slept through totally and DH didn't even have to go in!!

It was great - now he was sleeping 11 hour stretches, no problem.

Having said that, we've had hiccups (travel, baby's had a cold/congestion, etc) and sometimes had to go through the weaning process again because his routine has been disrupted. But then it takes one or two nights, and now we don't even bother with expressed milk, my husband will just take some water in a bottle, just in case.

So, all in all, we've had pretty good success, but don't be surprised if there are bumps in the road, and it can be done without HUGE crying.

maybe go in and pick him up, and comfort him the best you can without feeding him... if he uses a binkie give that to him instead?

My advice would be to cut the time he nurses in half for two nights and then in half again for two nights until it is such a small amount of time that he does not really need the feeding. If he wakes and fusses for more than 3 minutes go to him and make sure he is all right and then leave him to go back to sleep. It may take a couple of nights. I do sleep consultations...check my website www.babydreamzzz.com. Good luck.

Definitely send in dad, it worked for us, although we also sleep trained (cried it out) when our son was much younger...but we used dad to cut out the last feeding.

Try dad for a few nights, and tell dad to do as little comforting as possible, maybe the first night pick him up, the second night just pat, etc. My husband is much better at not over comforting...like I would do! My husband also does not hear the fussing, etc, and sleeps though more than I do, so the baby gets a better chance at soothing himself. Basically after baby's in bed, put dad in charge until morning!

Also don't be afraid to let him fuss. If he is not screaming, I would let him be.

A common sleep issue the first year is a baby that needs mom to get back to sleep in the middle of the night. Babies have sleep cycles and they don't sleep straight thru all night long - the question is can they go back to sleep on their own or do they need the form of soothing and comfort that nursing/bottle/paci provides. I don't think your baby needs the milk at all - 9 months is old enough to go 12 hours w/o food. You need to teach the baby to self sooth and get back to sleep w/o involving you. Buy a book about sleep - I recommend - Weisbluth "Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Baby". Learn about the science of sleep. Decide what level of crying you can tolerate. Make a plan; get dad onboard and buy a fan to provide white noise for your other child and you. Good luck. BTW you might just get it done by the reunion.

It sounds like you've figured out that its become a habit. How about sending Dad in there to lay him back down, pat him on the back/butt for a minute or two and then have him leave. After a few nights Im pretty sure he would get the picture that night eating is over and get over it quicker since you have the "goods" and he knows that. Im also in favor of "crying it out" for 5-10 minute intervals.

How old is your son??

At 7 months, I decided to stop getting up and nursing my son at about 3 am. i did what I call "stare it out". I ewould go in, give him his paci and rock him. he stared at me, wide eyed, for about 45 minutes the first night! Then 40, then 30, then 10, and then completely throught the night 6:30-7! Good luck!

Sounds like to me he is just nursing for comfort. Mine did the same thing around 10 months. I would go in and pick her up, rock for a few minutes and then tell he it's bedtime, time to go back to sleep. Make sure she had her blankie and pacifier, leave the room and listen on the monitor to make sure she went back to sleep. Most of the time she would go back to sleep. In my opinion when you night wean the child still needs some reassurance and comfort to show them everything is still ok. Mine easily weaned from night feedings but still woke up oftne for a couple of weeks for comfort. After that we have had no problems at all with sleeping.

sounds like he is "teething nursing" . nursing relieves the pain of teething and the sign to me that was when my daughter would nurse just like your child. You can easily go to your reunion but i would have someone else wake up with him or have a sitter stay with the child overnight. you can always let him scream it out, but if hes in pain is that really the message you want to send?