Anyone successfully night weaned?

[freddie]

Hi ladies,

My LO has always been a terrible sleeper and currently wakes around 5 times a night, usually wanting to be nursed back to sleep. I have got to the point where I feel like we need to try to address his sleeping habits as they are negatively affecting DH and I, the exhaustion is just making things so hard

I am hoping that night weaning is the answer... I also feel that it is the right time to night wean as I have another baby coming in April and I don't think I could cope with nursing 2 all night!

I have seen a few people recommend Jay Gordon as a good gentle method, has anyone followed this and have any insight? Or does anyone know of any other good ways to go about night weaning? I just want to make sure we choose the right method from the start and most importantly, the gentlest one possible while still being effective!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated... I am desperate lol!

 

[Dk1234]

I did at like 8 months maybe and it was no problem. I turned on his turtle and walked out of the room and he cried for maybe 30 seconds.

 

[Dk1234]

I was pregnant and therefore my milk supply was hurting and that helped I think. So maybe you'll have that same effect

 

[seaweed eater]

Yes, but only after working on the nursing to sleep association separately, and LO was nearly sleeping through.

If you don't want to address the sleep association, you could use one of the following gradual methods to cut down: you could limit the length of your nursing sessions and hope that he just drops them once they're short enough, or increase the time between sessions gradually until you can drop one.

None of those would have worked for my LO, since he would complain a lot if he didn't get to nurse as soon as he wanted to and for as long as he wanted to. So we had to work on the sleep association first. Once we did that, he gradually dropped to just one early morning feed, and then we night weaned completely. If you take that approach, then any gentle method to encourage self-settling could work for you, like the No Cry Sleep Solution one etc.

 

[Rachel_C]

If I wasn't already married, I would be hunting down Dr Jay Gordon and making him my husband... I love him!

We night weaned LO a few weeks ago, she has just turned 2. We went from waking 2-3 times a night to sleeping through in less than a week. It was incredibly easy and pain free - we had maybe 30 seconds of crying in my arms on a few of the nights but it was mostly cross crying, nothing heartbreaking. I followed his guide here - https://drjaygordon.com/attachment/sleeppattern.html - and we got a Gro Clock too and that's been good.

I fed her to sleep as usual and if she woke up again before 11.30pm I would feed her again but after that there was no milk until 6.30am. During the no milk time, I set the Gro-clock to night time so she could tell if she was allowed milk or not. When she woke and called for me, I always said the same in a sing-song voice, "It's sleepy time now, Daddy's asleep, your sister's asleep, Mummy go to sleep, E go to sleep, boobies are asleep, night night everybody" then I either fed her for a few minutes or cuddled her, depending on what stage we were up to. We haven't had to do the final stage of no cuddles as she's pretty much stopped waking - if she does, I don't mind a quick cuddle as it takes less than a minute.

I didn't feel the need to stop feeding her to sleep in the first place and she's actually started doing it herself most nights. I feed her and she tells me to go away, she chats to her sister for a bit, I tell her to get back in bed, she sometimes asks for more milk but usually within half an hour they're both asleep so that's okay with me! When she consistently goes to sleep without milk, we'll switch around the bedtime routine a bit but we're fine for now.

I think as long as your LO will understand that you're asleep/he needs to be asleep/there won't be any milk until morning, it's a great method. It's gentle but fast and was very effective for us. I think if it hadn't worked I would have assumed LO wasn't ready yet and tried a month later.

 

[freddie]

Thank you for your advice ladies. I think I will give the Jay Gordon method a try, kind of mixed in with a bit of No Cry Sleep Solution lol. Basically just thinking of extending the first stage in his method and trying to gradually reduce feeding time and see how that goes to begin with... If I get the right moment I seem to be able to unlatch him and he'll roll over and let me pat him to sleep. But I had a taste of what it'd be like to cut feeds out at around 5am this morning when I refused to feed LO as it had only been about an hour since he last woke. Well he cried from 5am til 6am when I "gave in" and fed him as it was basically his getting up time then and so thought a feed and going downstairs to play was the best thing to do!

So feeling VERY apprehensive about the 2nd stage. Gulp. I think my little boy is stubborn when it comes to his want for boobs... And I absolutely hate to hear him cry like that :'(

 

[steph.]

We night weaned a couple of weeks after her 1st birthday. First I stopped feeding her to sleep because if she fell asleep on the boob she would wake up more often searching for it. So dh started putting her to bed. He would put music on, offer her milk from a straw cup, and rock/pat her. Then if she woke up in the night he would go in and rock/pat her back to sleep. The first couple of nights were hard, she was crying for boob and at 3am i just wanted to give it to her to get back to sleep, but my dh said he had it and managed to settle her with lots of cuddles. First night she cried maybe 15minutes, second night 5min, third night 1 minute and after that she started sleeping through. I couldnt believe it was that easy. She had been waking up at least 2x at night for her whole life, and as soon as the boob was out of the picture she started sleeping through.

 

[freddie]

We night weaned a couple of weeks after her 1st birthday. First I stopped feeding her to sleep because if she fell asleep on the boob she would wake up more often searching for it. So dh started putting her to bed. He would put music on, offer her milk from a straw cup, and rock/pat her. Then if she woke up in the night he would go in and rock/pat her back to sleep. The first couple of nights were hard, she was crying for boob and at 3am i just wanted to give it to her to get back to sleep, but my dh said he had it and managed to settle her with lots of cuddles. First night she cried maybe 15minutes, second night 5min, third night 1 minute and after that she started sleeping through. I couldnt believe it was that easy. She had been waking up at least 2x at night for her whole life, and as soon as the boob was out of the picture she started sleeping through.

You make it sound so easy so far I have given up twice after LO crying for boob for over an hour

 

[readytotry]

I just sent dad in for a week and let them get on with it. I think it really depends on your child's temperament though. Mine was happy to night (and day) wean as she was never that bothered. She is also completely different with my husband than with me. She is much more willing to go with the flow if he's in charge whereas she tantrums and fights me constantly so I think that helped too.

 

[freddie]

My LO won't go to my husband during the night! He screams and tries to practically flip out of his arms! Only mummy will do... Sigh.

 

[seaweed eater]

So much depends on your LO's temperament. Just remember, the fact that he is persistent doesn't mean that he's suffering more or that he won't adjust well. Mine really hates change (he gets it from me) but he does adjust well if I am consistent.

 

[Piper84]

We night weaned DS at nine months. No method, just got DH to rock him back to sleep and give him water if he was thirsty.