[Jule'sMomInOR]

I have been thinking about night weaning my DD for a long time because I'm very sleep deprived with my LO waking up anywhere from 2-8 times per night to nurse, and then I wake up between 5-6 am for work each morning. She is coming up on 15 months old and I'm hoping to do it around 17-18 months.

Here is the issue. When Juliana is not teething, she wakes up about 2-3 times, which I feel is reasonable and I could handle. When she is teething (which seems to be over half of the time) she wakes up closer to 5-8 times per night and I become a walking zombie for those 3-4 weeks and feel like I will lose my mind. If she would stick to the 2-3 times I would just let the night nursing run its course and not feel the need to night wean. However, when she is teething she nurses for comfort and I'd hate to take the comfort away from her. I like to use Advil sparingly and Hyland's tablets seem to help very little.

For those of you who have night weaned, did you LO go back to waking up and trying to nurse after teething started again? How did you handle it?

Juliana seems to have a low pain tolerance and be a horrible self-soother, and turns to nursing any time she has the slightest pain or discomfort. I'm just not sure I want to take away her only comfort mechanism. Or will this force her to find another way to cope? I'd hate to go through the trouble of night weaning only to fall right back into the habit a few weeks later when she gets teeth.

[mgm78]

i have no advice, we have not gotten any teeth since night weaning. two yr molars are all we have left and i fear it like the plague.

[Jule'sMomInOR]

Ugh, we still only have 8 teeth. 12 to go! Every time I think about night weaning I find some reason to wait just a little longer. I'm starting to think she'll be nursing all night until she goes to kindergarten.

[Cruiser]

Originally Posted by mgm78

i have no advice, we have not gotten any teeth since night weaning. two yr molars are all we have left and i fear it like the plague.

Sorry not to the OP, but my DD's 2-yr molars came in and I didn't even notice! Some of her other teeth were pretty awful, but these just came in and she was fine with it. So you never know!



Re night weaning, I night-weaned a little after a year because I had gone back to work and wasn't functional waking up that often. She was fine with it, but she didn't really comfort nurse ever, just nursed to eat then back to sleep. I had to sleep in the spare room for a few months and my hubby would bring her to our room to sleep with her once she woke up in her crib. It was maybe 2 nights of minimal crying (like 5 minutes of asking for me, then settling down).

[mgm78]

i hope we are that lucky with the molars!!!

[ezziemum]

I hear you! I know I have just found this post a few months later, but I am in EXACTLY the same position. My lil one is waking 5-8 times and the teething is never ending. I am not coping with so many wake ups. As you say, if it was just 2-3 times it would be okay, but it is killing me. But I don't want to take away his only comfort and I fear that even if I night wean and take him through that horrible process, he will still be waking up all the time!

So... what did you end up deciding? Have the teeth come through? Did you wean anyway? What do you recommend?

My one also has just 8 teeth, 12 to go is a very daunting thought!

I'm hoping you have some kind of solution there for me!

[Jule'sMomInOR]

Originally Posted by ezziemum

So... what did you end up deciding? Have the teeth come through? Did you wean anyway? What do you recommend?

My one also has just 8 teeth, 12 to go is a very daunting thought!

I'm hoping you have some kind of solution there for me!

I noticed around the end of December when I was thinking of night weaning that the canines looked a little swollen, so I decided not to do it. However, the canines still look the same! I think I was imagining it, or they might just be taking their sweet time. Our pedi told us that her molars were coming in at the 12 month appointment and they didn't make it all the way through until 16 months.

I decided that instead of night weaning, I would start by not nursing her all the way to sleep. I think I might actually post a thread about that specifically. I nurse her for 10 minutes, then we lay down and she is doing some crying. It's more of a mad-sounding cry than a cry of abandonment, though, and I snuggle her and tell her "I know you want milk, but you're a big girl now." She has gone to sleep on my shoulder with some bouncing the last 3 nights. At some point I need to extend this into not bouncing at all, but that's going to make it harder so I think I may stick with the current plan for about another week.

The other thing that sucks is that it's taking longer for her to get to sleep, so she's staying up later. She was up until 10 pm, then 10:45 pm (yikes!) but last night she was really tired so she fell asleep at 8:10 pm. We'll see what the next few nights hold. (Btw, previous bed time was around 8:45 pm).

I just hope that this gets us somewhere. It's no where near CIO but it's still really hard. I can't imagine ever letting a baby CIO because it breaks my heart to hear her cry for one minute because I won't give her milk.

[ashj_1218]

Those canines can be a PITA. Liams were swollen for several months before they came in. So she might be a longer teether with them. But his behavior was like day and night when they finally popped. So that could be a factor.

Glad you are figuring something out that works for you. Hope it continues to get better.