Night weaning a 15 month old ... too young?

[Pikkle]

Does anyone have any advice/tips on night weaning a 15 months old? We co-sleep, and am totally happy with that, but I am now exhausted, and she feeds a good few times a night, and I just don't sleep very well, because if I so much as move, she stirs, and wants to feed to sleep again :S

She has a cot, by the side of our bed. It was attached as a co-sleeper, but is now a cot and she sleeps in it until she wakes up during the night (usually 11pm - ish)

Is it going to be impossible to night wean her?! I am just so incredibly tired and am not sleeping. Or is that selfish of me? Even if it was just one feed a night, I would feel better.

My other thing is, getting her to settle back down in her cot, I don't mind co-sleeping, in fact I think its lovely, but am lacking in space, and would like her to spend at least half of the night in her cot.

One thing I don't want, is to let her cry ....

help! Thanks in advance! xx

 

[lynnikins]

i night weaned EJ at 8 months so i dont think 15 months is too early, i put his cot in the other room and would go in when he woke and feed him then cuddle him till he was back to sleep and put him back down in his cot after a couple of nights he just stopped crying for a feed when he woke up

 

[Pikkle]

i night weaned EJ at 8 months so i dont think 15 months is too early, i put his cot in the other room and would go in when he woke and feed him then cuddle him till he was back to sleep and put him back down in his cot after a couple of nights he just stopped crying for a feed when he woke up

So do you think moving to another room is the solution? Sounds like it makes sense, but have a problem! We are waiting to move away as OH has new job, and in the meantime, are having to live with my parents, so she doesn't have a spare room, as they use their spare bedroom

I think, when we move, I will try that and will make her her own lovely bedroom, and try and transition her slowly. I don't think, whilst she is in our room, its going to work is it I feel terrible, but I just can't function on such little sleep at the moment! x

 

[lynnikins]

we tried having him in our room but i just ended up giving in, having him in the other room ment he did have to cry a bit to wake me but it ment that i wasnt just falling asleep and leaving him to it as i had to sit up on the floor to feed him in his room , i tried not to let him cry much though as he is sharing his brothers room and didnt want my toddler to wake up

 

[mandarhino]

I did the Dr Jay Gordon night weaning method at around 14-15 months. He recommends night weaning while co-sleeping to help the baby feel more secure. It took about a week, with a lot less crying than I expected. I just patted her back and spoke softly to her until she went back to sleep.

She didn't start sleeping through until later. However, following this she was amenable to going back to sleep with just a cuddle or sticking her hand down my top.

For a couple of months after that she slept in her own bed until she woke in the middle of the night/early morning and then came in with us. At 21 months - e.g. about two weeks ago - she started sleeping through consistently in her own room. I had been telling her for about a month before that, that she should roll over and go back to sleep if she woke in the night. She understands the message and repeats 'roll over and back to sleep' at me if she woke in the night or when I complimented her sleeping in the morning.

 

[pinkclaire]

Does she properly cry or just whinge? I was really against doing CIO with my son as I really didnt want to do it, but then worked out he was actually having more of a paddy about the situation than it upsetting him? Yes he was angry, but I could cope with anger rather than tears! If I leave him for 5-10 mins he calmed straight down and went to sleep, and know goes to sleep most of the time on his own.

There is lots of no cry methods, one I used was pick up put down. might be worth a go9ogle? It did work to start with, but then I realised he was just having a paddy and it was easier to leave him alone than me aggrevate him more so changed our tactics. Obviously it completely depends on the child! xx

 

[Pikkle]

Did you read a book by him, or just articles? if so, do you have any references? I would like to have a look at that!
Did you start by feeding a little bit and then saying 'Now roll over and go to sleep'? Or did you go straight into just telling LO to go to sleep?

I don't want to do anything that will upset her, I just think we may all benefit from more sleep now!

At night, I usually feed her, then daddy takes her to bed, and she did get upset for a bit (we had to do it, as she was biting me so much!) but now she just cuddles him, and says 'lie down!' and lies down and falls asleep.

I don't want to stop Breastfeeding her, but I think possibly the time has come to cut down a little, as she wants to feed a lot at home, but when we are out an about she will go all day without it! So could do with consistency, for my boobs sake! They are one minute full, and the next feel like I'm running out!

 

[Pikkle]

Erm, I can't answer the crying or winge one, because its neither, she tends to help herself! I should imagine it would be a case of crying otherwise though, but I don't want her to cry, especially during the night, so would rather try and slowly do it, than do it all of a sudden ...

Have looked up some methods,and was thinking of getting 'The no cry sleep solution' book x

 

[pinkclaire]

The best book I read (trust me I read a lot ) was the baby sleep system by Wendy Deane, I will highly recommend!

 

[Pikkle]

Thank you! I will pick the book up in the library if I can, on Thursday

I'd quite like another baby, when she is about 2 and a half, but couldn't have a none sleeper, and a newborn, so would like to establish a good routine first. My eldest is 6, and DD is 15 months, so I'd quite like a closer age gap next time, but not until I have sleep sorted!!!

 

[pinkclaire]

Tell me about it thats what I'm dreading in a couple of months! Hopefully we've got ours on the right direction!

 

[mandarhino]

Hi
Here's the article I read about it
https://drjaygordon.com/attachment/sleeppattern.html

I started with shortening the feeds and then cutting out feeds between a certain time period - before 5am. There was crying, she has never taken well to her source of milk being cut off. But it had got to the point where I wasn't coping with the lack of sleep. And I didn't want to wean her entirely.

I keep the 5amish feed for a couple of months and then cut that out cause again I wasn't going back to sleep after that. Now she sleeps through and gets up sometime between 6-7am.

 

[Aunty E]

We would never have had Teddy if Mog hadn't been such a good sleeper. I used to give her a dream feed at about midnight and then put her back in her cot, but she had to go in her own room at about five months as OH is quite a noisy sleeper and we were waking her up. Had absolutely no problems with the transition, but she wouldn't have been as aware as your little one will be. Her cot is filled with fun things for her to play with if she wakes up, and she has a music box on the cot bars as well. We put it on when we put her to bed, and she puts it on herself in the morning or if she wakes in the night (or if we forget at bedtime ). She has a gloworm from fisherprice which lights up and plays music and she plays with that too. The most important thing in getting her to sleep well for us has probably been the sleep toy. We started with a unicorn, but it's currently a cuddly dinosaur, and as long as she has that to snuggle, she'll sleep anywhere (it's also easily available in shops in case we ever lose him ). I'm guessing your LO's sleep prop right now is you, so even if you can't move her out, you could start switching her prop from you onto something cuddly. The sleep toy never comes out of the cot though, to maintain the association with sleep.

 

[jessabella]

wow I feel really selfish as I wish Livvy would drop atleast one of her feeds. 2 weeks ago she decided 11:30, 3:30, and 6:30 were her new feed times. she use to sleep 6 hours at night

I dont think thats selfish at all at 15 months! good luck

 

[Kaites]

We co-sleep and started to night wean around 14 months too (that went out the window when dd was hospitalized over xmas and so far we haven't tried to get back on track ). What was working for us was having hubby give her a cuddle when she woke up at night looking for boob. He'd pat her back and snuggle her for me- the idea was to let her know that we were still there to comfort her but also have it be the person without the boobie juice good luck

eta- and the no cry sleep solution is a waste of time to read imo- just a lot of common sense stuff like implementing a routine that promotes sleep and pushing up under the chin when baby starts to root for boob (that didn't work for us either).

 

[celine]

I dont co-sleep but G night weaned at 14/15 months, this is probably harder if they are right next to you i guess but what we did is instead of me going to him for a feed i sent dh with a sippy of water and prepared for him to yell the house down...but he never did so I guess he was ready?

 

[Pikkle]

I think I am going to try a few things, and see which one works. I don't want to take away her mummy and her milk all in one go, so I may try first to feed her a little and teach her to roll over and fall back to sleep, and go from there.
Last night, she slept ok ish, but from about 4am constantly wanted me, and my boob really hurts now, and I can't sleep when she is feeding because its starting to get sore

Glad noone thinks I am being selfish! Sometimes, I just worry people may think I am being horrid by taking something away from her when she doesn't understand. But for my sanity, I have to sleep!

 

[nncole]

The best advice i was given is that as long as your baby gets enough food between 7am and 7pm they wont need any at night!
Feed them up all day if need be starting prompt at 7am - worked a treat for me - my baby stopped having a night feed from about 6 mths and stopped having a late evening feed from about 9 mths Good Luck x

 

[Sam292]

The best advice i was given is that as long as your baby gets enough food between 7am and 7pm they wont need any at night!
Feed them up all day if need be starting prompt at 7am - worked a treat for me - my baby stopped having a night feed from about 6 mths and stopped having a late evening feed from about 9 mths Good Luck x

I think the problem is its not hunger but comfort that lo is after. My ds eats at least 2 hourly through the day and im sure he is not hungry at night but he feeds on and off all night too. Its his favourite way to settle back to sleep so filling them up doesn't always work.

How are you getting on with nights Pikkle? Been a while since you started this thread!

 

[Pikkle]

Oooh this thread was a while back, had forgotten about it!

All is good actually, although not particularly weaned as such...

If I sleep in the spare room, she will sleep in the bedroom with daddy and in her cot fine, it seems she just wants me! But I have slept in with her and just had to say no and cuddle her, and it seems to have worked ... I think I will continue when we finally move house, by making the transition to bedroom xxx

thank for your advice everyone!!xx