Nighttime weaning

[smm5623]

So M still nurses 2x at night (on a good night). She usually gets a good 6-7 hour stretch before her first wake up, then her second is often only 2-3 hours later. She goes right back down at each feeding. I have tried to not nurse her but it never ends well (she gets really upset, up for 2-3 hours, grabbing at my shirt, etc).

She's 9 months old. She slept through the night from 7-14 weeks, then started these nighttime nursing sessions around the time I went back to work.

Will she eventually drop the night time nursing or should I actively try to wean her? Please share your experience!

[whitemerlot]

In my experience, you will have to actively wean her at night. I say this because my 15-month-old daughter is still up nursing at least twice a night.

I would love to hear some tips about how to actively wean at night.

[whitterbugk]

We just nightweaned (at 13 months). We did it the week before my husband had to go back to school (he's a teacher). B was only getting up usually once to eat.

My H just did all the wakings. He would get him out of the crib, snuggle him until he was pretty much asleep, then put him back in. Sometimes he would fuss for a minute or two when H put him back in the crib, but never full-on screaming.

It took about 3 nights. It's been about 3 weeks now, and he's only woken up twice in the middle of the night.

[greekypie]

we did Ferber's method to reduce the # of nighttime feedings (it is not CIO). worked like a charm.

[dcn]

I stopped night nursing a week ago. He was only eating once, but I think it's the reason he doesn't sttn. I had dh go in the first few nights. It was rough, he was up for an hour +. And he's been waking between 4:30 and 5:30 every morning. I think he's getting there. We don't pick him up though so there's no grabbing at my shirt.

Ferber has a method to reduce night feedings that might help if you don't want to go cold turkey.

[mushmouse]

Mine went to once a night around that age and then dropped the last one around 11 months. He did it on his own. If you want to test the waters you can send your husband in when she wakes up. If she really is hungry she won't settle down until you come in. My son was still really nursing for those wake ups though so I didn't feel comfortable being the one to stop them.

[Deleted]

I never had any interest in night weaning prior to 12 months, and I had to semi-actively night wean around 14-15 months. I used jay Gordon's method, got through a couple steps and then backed off and then they did it on their own two weeks later.