How did you night wean?

[Anonymous]

I am done done done with night nursing but the idea of just saying “too bad, sleep time now, night night!” to my baby hurts my heart. Which is weird because I had no issue doing it with my older kids! How and when did you stop nursing at night and how did it work out?

[Anonymous]

We were never able to do night bottles (her enraged bottle refusal kept the whole house up for more than an hour per bottle), which was a pain at the time because I woke up every three hours. Ultimately it was a blessing though because when DH went into her she never expected a bottle. So we moved a night feed to a “Dada rocks you” and she decided it wasn’t worth waking up for that. A couple weeks later we did the same for the second night feed and now we typically (knock wood...) have her down from seven-seven

[Anonymous]

OP and PP, curious how old your babies are/were. I'm in the same position of trying to night wean my nine month old. The frustrating part is that he slept 12 hours through the night from 3-6 months, but has been waking up usually once per night (sometimes more) wanting to nurse since six months (it seemed to start with teething). If I or my husband try to rock him back to sleep, it will easily take an hour plus to get him back to sleep. Letting him cry isn't ideal because our older child will wake up. If I nurse him, he usually will go right back to sleep, but I feel like he shouldn't need to eat at night anymore (he's not small, 70% for weight). My older child just started sleeping through the night at 6 months and I never had to night wean or sleep train, so I'm struggling with how to get my baby back to sleeping all night.

[Anonymous]

It was 3 or 4 nights of hell. At about 8 months, DD started waking up at 2 am for a quick snack. 10 minutes or so of nursing and she'd be back asleep until 6:30 or 7. I thought it was a teething thing but it continued for months. At about 10 months I was done with the sleep interruption. We ended up letting her CIO, she cried for literally hours for about 3 nights. it was hard because I knew if I nursed we'd both be asleep in minutes but we held strong and after a couple of nights she stopped waking up or if she did she got herself back to sleep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP and PP, curious how old your babies are/were. I'm in the same position of trying to night wean my nine month old. The frustrating part is that he slept 12 hours through the night from 3-6 months, but has been waking up usually once per night (sometimes more) wanting to nurse since six months (it seemed to start with teething). If I or my husband try to rock him back to sleep, it will easily take an hour plus to get him back to sleep. Letting him cry isn't ideal because our older child will wake up. If I nurse him, he usually will go right back to sleep, but I feel like he shouldn't need to eat at night anymore (he's not small, 70% for weight). My older child just started sleeping through the night at 6 months and I never had to night wean or sleep train, so I'm struggling with how to get my baby back to sleeping all night.

I’m the PP who relied on the “send in DH, the boobless” method, and we did it at 9MO.

I do suggest the website babysleepscience about interpreting night wakings, though. When my baby has been asleep for eight+ hours and wakes I assume she is actually hungry or thirsty, and a brief snack has her right back to sleep.

[Anonymous]

DS night weaned himself, gradually sleeping longer and longer stretches until he was maybe 12 months. DD is very petite and just can’t go more than eight hours without eating. It’s not bad at all since she goes right back to sleep and I do too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP and PP, curious how old your babies are/were. I'm in the same position of trying to night wean my nine month old. The frustrating part is that he slept 12 hours through the night from 3-6 months, but has been waking up usually once per night (sometimes more) wanting to nurse since six months (it seemed to start with teething). If I or my husband try to rock him back to sleep, it will easily take an hour plus to get him back to sleep. Letting him cry isn't ideal because our older child will wake up. If I nurse him, he usually will go right back to sleep, but I feel like he shouldn't need to eat at night anymore (he's not small, 70% for weight). My older child just started sleeping through the night at 6 months and I never had to night wean or sleep train, so I'm struggling with how to get my baby back to sleeping all night.

I’m the PP who relied on the “send in DH, the boobless” method, and we did it at 9MO.

I do suggest the website babysleepscience about interpreting night wakings, though. When my baby has been asleep for eight+ hours and wakes I assume she is actually hungry or thirsty, and a brief snack has her right back to sleep.

Thanks! The last part you mentioned is what I’m struggling with. It has usually been about 8 hours since he last ate when he wakes up (around 3 am). So it’s not inconceivable that he is really hungry. I feel bad denying him milk, but I really want an uninterrupted night of sleep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP and PP, curious how old your babies are/were. I'm in the same position of trying to night wean my nine month old. The frustrating part is that he slept 12 hours through the night from 3-6 months, but has been waking up usually once per night (sometimes more) wanting to nurse since six months (it seemed to start with teething). If I or my husband try to rock him back to sleep, it will easily take an hour plus to get him back to sleep. Letting him cry isn't ideal because our older child will wake up. If I nurse him, he usually will go right back to sleep, but I feel like he shouldn't need to eat at night anymore (he's not small, 70% for weight). My older child just started sleeping through the night at 6 months and I never had to night wean or sleep train, so I'm struggling with how to get my baby back to sleeping all night.

I’m the PP who relied on the “send in DH, the boobless” method, and we did it at 9MO.

I do suggest the website babysleepscience about interpreting night wakings, though. When my baby has been asleep for eight+ hours and wakes I assume she is actually hungry or thirsty, and a brief snack has her right back to sleep.

Thanks! The last part you mentioned is what I’m struggling with. It has usually been about 8 hours since he last ate when he wakes up (around 3 am). So it’s not inconceivable that he is really hungry. I feel bad denying him milk, but I really want an uninterrupted night of sleep.

I would make sure you are offering a high-fat, high-calorie dinner before bed. Nut/seed butters, full-fat yogurt, that kind of thing. Then I would do the approach PP mentioned - send in DH to soothe back to sleep. There will be crying, but it will stop after a few nights. You could do CIO but if you don't want to wake your other kid then just making DH suffer through what could be a long time of soothing/rocking is the way to go (for most babies. unfortunately there are babies that actually get MORE upset when a parent is there, and if that is the case you just need to find a way to make CIO work for a couple days).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP and PP, curious how old your babies are/were. I'm in the same position of trying to night wean my nine month old. The frustrating part is that he slept 12 hours through the night from 3-6 months, but has been waking up usually once per night (sometimes more) wanting to nurse since six months (it seemed to start with teething). If I or my husband try to rock him back to sleep, it will easily take an hour plus to get him back to sleep. Letting him cry isn't ideal because our older child will wake up. If I nurse him, he usually will go right back to sleep, but I feel like he shouldn't need to eat at night anymore (he's not small, 70% for weight). My older child just started sleeping through the night at 6 months and I never had to night wean or sleep train, so I'm struggling with how to get my baby back to sleeping all night.

I’m the PP who relied on the “send in DH, the boobless” method, and we did it at 9MO.

I do suggest the website babysleepscience about interpreting night wakings, though. When my baby has been asleep for eight+ hours and wakes I assume she is actually hungry or thirsty, and a brief snack has her right back to sleep.

Thanks! The last part you mentioned is what I’m struggling with. It has usually been about 8 hours since he last ate when he wakes up (around 3 am). So it’s not inconceivable that he is really hungry. I feel bad denying him milk, but I really want an uninterrupted night of sleep.

I would make sure you are offering a high-fat, high-calorie dinner before bed. Nut/seed butters, full-fat yogurt, that kind of thing. Then I would do the approach PP mentioned - send in DH to soothe back to sleep. There will be crying, but it will stop after a few nights. You could do CIO but if you don't want to wake your other kid then just making DH suffer through what could be a long time of soothing/rocking is the way to go (for most babies. unfortunately there are babies that actually get MORE upset when a parent is there, and if that is the case you just need to find a way to make CIO work for a couple days).

+1 to this, and because it’s summer you could even give DH a bottle with an ounce of water in case it’s thirst. My DD wanted nothing to do with it but it did lay to rest my concern that she was thirsty for hours...

[Anonymous]

I did it the same time I did sleep training with the Sleep Easy Solution - https://www.amazon.com/Sleepeasy-Solution-Exhausted-Parents-Getting/dp/0757305601

It's timed dream feeds based on prior night feeding data that you cut down the time each night until weaned.

[Anonymous]

We read the chapter in Ferber's book on night weaning and followed it exactly.

[Anonymous]

Sigh.

Same boat here with a baby that doesn't take a bottle. The 4mo sleep regression killed us and we are now 6m and up 5x a night. My catch-22 has been that if I go in and nurse, she's back out within 5 mins. If I send DH in, it's instant screaming for an hour+. I know I need to do CIO but I'm too mentally exhausted to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did it the same time I did sleep training with the Sleep Easy Solution - https://www.amazon.com/Sleepeasy-Solution-Exhausted-Parents-Getting/dp/0757305601

It's timed dream feeds based on prior night feeding data that you cut down the time each night until weaned.

+1

This worked great for us.

[Anonymous]

I shortened the feedings by a minute a night, and over a few days, baby stopped waking.

[Anonymous]

We did a dream feed and then she just kept sleeping through to the morning. We dropped the dream feed when solids were in good shape.