A poll for mommies of kids who no longer nurse through the night

I imagine it would be really nice to nightwean, although I'm really rather content to continue, also. The only thing is, I will have to be away from her in February for [a week? - more or less], and definitely want her to be at least night-weaned by then. It will be difficult enough to miss mommy without having to miss nursies too, and not be used to falling back asleep in other ways. (Daddy will be with her when I'm gone and she is VERY attached to him).

Anyway, I'm just curious to know what other ladies' experiences have been. If it's common for them to trail off anywhere near 2yo, I may just wait a few more months and see what happens.

[Heather Micaela]

for ds it was a combo of me being pg and running out of milk and transtioning him to a water sippy cup he coudl have when he asked to nurse.

dd is past two and still night nurses, but not much

[Katydid]

I voted "other" because I wouldn't call my efforts "stratigic" For me, it was also as a result of being pregnant and losing milk and being sore. Ds was already down to only waking two to three times a night anyway, so when he woke and asked to nurse, I would tell him that we would nurse in the morning. Sometimes it worked, and somtimes it didn't, but he gradually nursed less and less. Oh, and we started having daddy put him to bed at night, so he wouldn't nurse to sleep either.

[abbiroads]

I said other b/c I just kinda knew when he was ready to handle me saying no during the night. He was nursing like an hour before we would all get up and when I told him no, when he was ready, he just went back to sleep. I didn't even realize that he had night weaned until I heard someone else talking about it . He was probably about 16mo? when that happened. Now, if he sleeps somewhere other than close to me, in a crib or something, I have sometimes needed to nurse him when he wakes up and wants to join us

couple of nights fussing with dad really helped in the long run

[AKCristyMJ]

Entirely on her own. I'm still holding a grudge.

[AttachedMamma]

Songbird,

Our DD weaned herself. I think she was between 3-4 yo when she nightweaned. It coincided with "sleeping through the night." She really loved to nurse! She weaned herself fully right before her 4th birthday.

How often does your toddler nurse at night? If she's only nursing once or twice a night, it may not be so difficult. I think if she's nursing (like mine was) 5x a night, then my guess is that it would be very difficult for her. Do you think she's ready? Have you tried soothing her in other ways during the night? If so, how has she taken to that? If your DH will be handling the nighttime parenting for a week or more, he will need to have some stuff to pull out of his bag of tricks to soothe her. I would guess that if you go and she isn't nightweaned, she may be after you get back. No easy answers...I guess you need to follow her cues.

Good luck.

cindi

Thanks for the replies so far. The past 2 nights, dd has been sick, so I've been in bed with her all except the very first hour after going to sleep. But *normally* she nurses to sleep, then doesn't wake up for another 4-6 hours, and then....I really don't know how many times she nurses for the rest of the night. She nurses a lot in the 2-3 hours or so before she gets up for the day. I don't think it will be a huge deal when we try to wean, but she *definitely* won't like it.

Whenever dh goes up to her instead of me, (this is before we both go to bed), the moment she sees him come through the door, she just says "No...no....no...no." She *very* attached to him, but when she wakes up at night, all she wants is "nursies." Since I sometimes work at night, dh has definitely BTDT as far as putting her to sleep and putting her back to sleep for her "first wake up." So, as far as having a "bag of tricks" I think we'll be fine.

Thanks again for the replies.

[DogwoodMama]

Well, dd is pretty much nightweaned unless she's sick or her teeth are bothering her... the past couple of nights she *has* been nursing at night b/c she's teething and adjusting to being back from our short trip (I think!). However, I had a moment of realization maybe 4-5 months ago (can't recall exactly!) that "Oh! She didn't nurse last night!" I *have* been doing the "Pantley pull-off" where I unlatch her once her sucking slows since she was maybe 10 months old, so I'm not sure how much that has to do with it? So I guess technically she's not completely night-weaned, but most nights she nurses before sleep, and then maybe around 7 a.m. or so? And she "took the lead" in it, so to speak.