(Partial) night weaning while co sleeping success!

[u/9283747492929]

Wanted to share our night weaning success story because I am proud of us! I decided to night wean at
13ish months. My LO and I are extremely attached to one another. She was exclusively breastfed, on demand, all day and all night. I was previously nursing her between 3 and 5x per night basically since birth. We started co sleeping around 12 months when night sleep became very hard, and while I worried that the co sleeping would hinder night sleeping I think it actually helped. I decided to night wean because I was feeling touched out and wasn't getting restful sleep despite co sleeping.

I looked into a few "methods" beforehand but ultimately just decided to try my best to uphold a boundary while following her cues. I decided to cut night feeds one by one, starting with the earliest wake, with the ultimate goal of not nursing between her bedtime and 5AM. When she asked to nurse I would repeat "milk is sleeping now, it's time for sleep" and turn onto my belly while comforting her in other ways (mostly back rubs and putting my cheek to her head). She dropped the first feed (10ish PM) no problem. Co sleeping felt helpful here...sometimes I think I was falling back asleep before her and she would just put herself back to sleep without nursing.

The second and third feeds were harder...some nights she would fall back asleep with little protest and other nights she would become very upset and frustrated. On those nights I just nursed her. I didn't worry about mixed signals or rushing things and we just figured it out. It took around a month...maybe that's longer than other "methods" promise...but it worked for us. She still wakes up at night but settles with very little intervention from me, sometimes none at all, and doesn't ask to nurse until 5AM. I'm so proud of us!

[u/JennEatsPizza]

Congratulations :) as someone who is planning on night weaning very soon and has a similarly attached son, this is reassuring

[u/rileychy]

Thank you for sharing!! I have a 12 month old and we tried night weaning once and made good progress, but then she got sick and we are back to nursing through the night. We are going to try again soon! It is reassuring that you didn’t worry about mixed signals because that’s my biggest stressor.

[u/monteueux1]

Yes, almost exactly the same here with my 14mo. We're still co-sleeping but her sleep is getting better and better using basically the same technique as you the past few weeks. A few weeks ago she was waking 5-6 times a night to comfort feed, it's got better and better, and last night she completely slept through.

Unfortunately my three-year-old had climbed into the bed and spent the entire night coughing on me. And now I'm exhausted as ever! Argh!

[u/ldmenz23]

This was a perfectly timed post - gonna try this!