[Jule'sMomInOR]

My DD is 18 months old and I've been wanting to night wean for a while, since she still wakes up for milk around 4 times per night and I have to wake up early for work. When she's teething, it could be even more often.

I decided to wait until she gets her canines. However, 4 nights ago I decided to just stop nursing her all the way to sleep. I nurse her for 10 minutes, while warning her how many minutes we have left, then we lay down in bed together. I have only been able to get her to sleep by having her lay on my shoulder and bouncing. We're still a long way from her just laying down and falling asleep.

The problem is that I'm such a softie. I hate that she's crying. I think it's probably about half an hour of crying, off an on. For example, she cries when I first break the latch for a few minutes and then gets up and crawls all over the bed. When she plays or stands up, I lay her down to encourage her to sleep, she asks for milk and I tell her "I'm sorry but we have to go to bed like a big girl" and cuddle her, repeating "I know it's hard." She cries again for a few minutes, stops and tries to stand up or play, and this repeats over and over until she finally just lays her head on my shoulder and we go to sleep.

It's really not that horrible, but the problem is that we haven't made much progress with not nursing to sleep. I'm thinking it's going to take around 10 nights, if not longer, before she stops crying about that. Then we still have to work on not bouncing to sleep. That will probably take another 10 nights of crying. It's not fun for her or me, and the end result still won't even be that she's night weaned. Now, I am *hoping* that once she learns to fall asleep on her own, it will result in less frequent night nursing because she won't feel like she has to have milk to go back to sleep, every single time she wakes up. However, there is no guarantee. Another problem we have is that she just doesn't eat a lot during the day because she's used to getting plenty of calories from milk at night. I worry that I will put us both through this and then really not see any benefit at all! Of course, at that point if I decide to go all out with night weaning, it will be easier than if she was used to falling asleep at the breast every time.

I guess I'm just looking for reassurance that this is the right path, or a reality check that it isn't. I am constantly second-guessing myself, but I do think by 18 months she's old enough to not nurse all the way to sleep.

[mgm78]

are you nursing her in bed or in a chair? if it is in bed, i would try nursing her in a chair, then doing your bed routine (books. etc). When we first did the night weaning, or actually, just started with reading some books while nursing, finishing the nursing, then reading some more books and her laying on her pillow and counting to ten to turn off the lights. She was closer to 2 years old though. can you use a timer of some sorts?

[Jule'sMomInOR]

We are nursing in the rocking chair. It's the same routine as always except that we used to nurse her all the way to sleep, then I'd set her down in the sidecar crib. I'm not sure what the benefit of the timer would be over me just giving her the countdown, other than she'd be mad at the timer instead of me! I guess that might not be a bad thing.

[mgm78]

the timer did not work for us, DD hated it, but i know a few moms who tried it. It made a definitive end to the nursing session. Or singing the ABCs, something like that.

[Jule'sMomInOR]

We do have a Violet that does 10 minutes of bedtime music. I could use that for the timing, but then there would be no countdown. I feel like it's good to have a warning to prepare her. I suppose I could do the 10 minutes and then turn it back on for 2 minutes.

I felt like last night got a little bit easier but it's still taking forever for her to get to sleep this way. We've went to sleep after 10 pm again.

[Jule'sMomInOR]

Last night was much better! She fussed once when I first broke the latch for about 20 seconds and one other time she asked for milk and fussed around 10 seconds and that was it! Woo hoo!

I decided to use Violet's 10 minutes of bedtime music as the timer and I figured out the last song so I could give a warning when the last song came on. We're getting this thing down. Now I hopefully will have an easier time when I eventually night wean. As soon as those canines come in, I will hopefully be getting better sleep.

[mgm78]

glad it is getting easier

[joonzgurl]

Horay!! Glad it went better last night, keep us posted!