[Carissa]

Aiyana is 21 months old. She still nurses (bedtime, at night, wake-up) and co-sleeps with me. She usually goes down to bed around 9 or 9:30 and wakes up around 7 or 7:30. Lately, she's been waking up at 3am and wanting to nurse. I oblige her, until I guess I must run out of milk. (At this point she's nursing and switching sides very often.)

I figure, 'Okay, you've drained me of milk. That should be enough for you.' Then I roll over and try to go to sleep. This usually causes her to get mad. I try to lie her on my chest (blanket/sheet between us); usually it makes her more mad. Eventually the screaming gets loud and persistent enough that for the last two nights, I've made her a bottle (4oz) of cow's milk. Last night she drained the bottle dry and then seemed to be content. She talked herself to sleep then.

Am I starting a bad habit by giving her a bottle of milk at night? I make sure she sits up to drink it and doesn't fall asleep with it in her mouth. Last night, I even brushed her teeth after the bottle of milk to help prevent caries (cavities). I know technically they don't need the extra nutrition at night.

What should I do? I don't have an extra bed for her to sleep in, let alone another bedroom. It feels like my milk is slowly drying up. I need some sleep.

[Zoostergirl]

My dd is 22 months tomorrow. We have recently night-weaned for the second time. I am pretty AP and believe in night-time parenting but it took some screaming for dd to understand that I was no longer going to nurse her at night. She wasn't scared, she wasn't sad, she was just downright ticked off. That kind of screaming I can handle. I had her there in bed with me. We co-sleep/have a sidecarred toddler bed. By the third night of me refusing to nurse her she got it and didn't even ask. She still wakes up at night and climbs into my bed and will snuggle me a bit or play with my hair, but it's usually just 5 min or so and then she is back to sleep.

So really it's totally up to you to do what you feel comfortable with. I would maybe offer her a water bottle rather than milk and see how she reacts to that.

ETA: just realized how old this post was I'm guessing you figured something out by now.