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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, you've got two issues here: sleep training and night weaning.  I would work on night weaning first.  At 5.5 months, your kid doesn't need to eat every two hours.  Your gut is right -- he can get by on 2-3 feeds per night.  When I night weaned, I decided that, from bedtime to bedtime + 5 hours, the kitchen was closed.  If my kid woke up then, he would be soothed to sleep without the boob.  This usually meant DH was on point, since DS would get really pissed if I was there and didn't whip it out.  Decide when you'll feed and when you'll soothe without feeding, and then start dropping the extra "feeds" one by one.

Once you're down to a reasonable number of feedings at night, then you can work on sleep training.  Do your research, pick a method that works for you, and decide on a plan of attack DURING THE DAY.  This is crucial -- you don't want to be guessing what your strategy should be at 3 a.m.  I'd get started now -- you're right that this is a good time, developmentally speaking.

And in conclusion, all the PPs who are "concerned" that I "missed out" on bonding with my baby because I let him "scream himself to sleep" are cordially invited to eat my butt.[/quote]

Agree absolutely with the point about night weaning vs. sleep training. Not to be harsh, OP-- I am saying this because I WAS you-- but you already sleep trained your baby. You trained your baby to expect a breast in his mouth every time he wakes up because, at the time, it was quickest and easiest, and also because in the beginning that really was what he needed. (For some of the moms who previously posted, evidently this is fine with them, and that's cool. Babies can bounce back from it, and if they can too, good for them. Even co-sleeping left me exhausted, personally, and "asleep at the wheel" in a metaphorical sense during the day.) I have to admit, I think CIO is a bit unfair to a baby when it's a parent's first recourse to creating bad sleep habits in a child-- though I totally understand how you can be at the end of your rope-- it seems much more unfair when a mom who has been breastfeeding on demand suddenly says "That's it, I'm not responding at ALL!" rather than taking some of the blame and saying, ok, let's see if I respond differently (or my husband does, or whatever) our baby can learn to sleep better. In any case, it worked for me and just night weaning solved most of our sleep problems. If you feel once you night wean that hunger really is waking your baby up early, you have several options-- my sister found the dream feed worked perfectly for her at 11 p.m., whereas I found nursing to be just the ticket to put baby back to sleep during those dawn hours when some young babies have a hard time settling back down (and both of these are relatively easy to cut out once a baby is older, not hungry, and sleeping more deeply). Good luck, OP! Really, doing this right shouldn't take more than a week, plus or minus a few days, and be prepared to get LESS sleep during that time. But it will be worth it.[/quote]

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