Thread: Night Weaning/Sleeping Through the Night

Morgan has never been a good sleeper. She has gotten up pretty much every 2-4 hours since birth. After 14 months, I am worn out. Her night schedule pretty much goes like this:

7:30 ish: Nurse & Bed (goes in her crib while awake)

11:00 or 12:00 am: Nurse and back to sleep in our bed the rest of the night

2:00 or 3:00 am: Just weaned her of this feeding a couple weeks ago. She is still getting up, however. She fusses for about 5 or 10 min while she tries to nurse and goes back to sleep.

5:00 or 6:00 am: I usually nurse her and she falls back to sleep until 7:00 or so.

She really isn't interested in nursing during the day so the next time she nurses is before bed. She also has two 1-hour naps during the day.

I need some advice on what to do next. I am supportive of fussing, but will not let her totally CIO. DH thinks that moving her into her own room (sharing with DD) might make a difference. Maybe I should cut the co-sleeping?

I am not opposed to nursing her once in the middle of the night, but the 2-3 times up at night has really worn me down. She is also very crabby a lot of the time and I think it is because she is not sleeping well. She does not take a paci or suck her thumb, but she does have a blanket that she likes and sleeps with.

Any advice/experiences would be wonderful

THANK YOU so much for posting this!

Umm.. Great big DITTO from me as well!!

Can't wait to see some answers!

My DD is the same way. She starts in her crib around 9pm, then will come in with me anywhere between 1-4am and nurses several times between then and morning (I honestly have no idea how many, because I'm so sleepy... probably 3x)

This is the best nightweaning article I've read... it's what I used with my son when he was 20mo (when we totally weaned because all he wanted was nighttime nursing)
http://drjaygordon.com/attachment/sleeppattern.html
I will say - weaning did not make my son sleep through the night. I wish it had, but it still took him another FOUR months to do it. We did not CIO, we still did the same thing as with DD, start in crib, when s/he wakes bring in to our bed. After weaning we just snuggled to sleep instead.

Finally when he was about two years old, he just STTN on his own. I didn't do anything differently, it was just developmental I think.

Just wanted to share that for us, nightweaning didn't cause STTN... it just made it harder to get him back to sleep.

Good luck!

PS: We can start a new club of sleepless zombies... Everyone at work asks, "Aren't you TIRED??" and I just say "Yep."

I love the article pp posted above. I read it when I wanted to nightwean my first when she was 15 months old. She was waking up every 2-3 hours a night and nursing anywhere between 45 minutes and an hour and a half...I tried to do that method, and it didn't work for her at all. I had to resort to a modified CIO where I stayed in the room with her. It took months and MONTHS for her to STTN, but it worked. She is a terrible sleeper, and is 3.5 and still wakes up most nights though. She did STTN for a while, but she's just a bad sleeper. I never co-slept with her. She moved into her own room and crib when she was 6 months old. She slept in the pack and play in our room before it.

The article worked great for my second daughter though. We co-slept part of the night (whenever she woke up) and she weaned around 14 months old completely. The night nursings were the last to go. But I was pregnant and she didn't like the taste/how slow let down was or something, so it was easy for her. She STTN in the pack n play after that for about a month. Then we moved her into her crib in DD1s room, and she hasn't STTN since.
Last night we moved them both into a full bed to share and we're hoping that will help them sleep.

Originally Posted by mommycarrie

My DD is the same way. She starts in her crib around 9pm, then will come in with me anywhere between 1-4am and nurses several times between then and morning (I honestly have no idea how many, because I'm so sleepy... probably 3x)

This is the best nightweaning article I've read... it's what I used with my son when he was 20mo (when we totally weaned because all he wanted was nighttime nursing)
http://drjaygordon.com/attachment/sleeppattern.html
I will say - weaning did not make my son sleep through the night. I wish it had, but it still took him another FOUR months to do it. We did not CIO, we still did the same thing as with DD, start in crib, when s/he wakes bring in to our bed. After weaning we just snuggled to sleep instead.

Finally when he was about two years old, he just STTN on his own. I didn't do anything differently, it was just developmental I think.

Just wanted to share that for us, nightweaning didn't cause STTN... it just made it harder to get him back to sleep.

Good luck!

PS: We can start a new club of sleepless zombies... Everyone at work asks, "Aren't you TIRED??" and I just say "Yep."

I'm in on the zombie club! I am not working right now. Don't know if I could mentally do it I am so tired. I am thinking that Morgan is a lot like your son. I was hopeful that eliminating a feed would mean that she would sleep longer, but she is still getting up and taking longer to get back to sleep. I told my SIL that I was getting more sleep when I was nursing her on demand!

That is a good article. My issue is the pace of the weaning. I suffer from major plugged ducts if I don't empty the breast or stay on a consistent schedule. For me, cutting out her middle of the day feed meant days of "unplugging" my breast and discomfort until my supply regulated. Just giving her a little milk and quitting would be bad for me. I know that most women don't have as much of a problem. If I knew that Morgan would definitely STTN, I would maybe pump or deal with it, but I am thinking that it is not going happen.

Morgan is definitely my most stubborn baby. I think I am in for a challenge!

I night weaned Ava in July (she was 15 months old at the time). Ava loves her mommy's milk and nursed all day and all night (she still nurses 5x-6x a day at 17 months old). I basically would go to her, pat her, rub her back, shhh her, anything I could to comfort her without nursing her or picking her up, although there were times I rocked her. It to her about a week- it didn't stop her night waking though. She still wakes up once a night, now it just takes her longer to get back to sleep. (Although she has slept through a few nights here and there).

Good luck!

Just wanted to follow up. Since I first posted, we have eliminated all middle of the night feeds and Morgan just nurses morning and night. She did this very easily actually. Not much of a struggle in the middle of the night. She was still getting up in the middle of the night, but she has turned the corner the past few nights by sleeping until 3 am or 5 am! If she gets up at 3am I just pull her into bed and comfort her. If she gets up at 5am or later I nurse her and she will usually go back to sleep for an hour or so. Then she doesn't nurse again until bed. Although I am still tired, I am not as "zombie-ish". We have made progress without CIO. Hopefully it continues

Yeah for progress! So glad that you were able to night wean in a way that worked for both of you!

Yay Leah! So glad things are improving for you. I love your siggy pic. Your DD is gorgeous!

I'm a zombie mommy too. Emma's always been a crummy sleeper. We had her in a co-sleeper in our room until 7 months when we moved her into her crib. Emma only STTN (6-7 hours) for about three weeks when she was about 4 months old. Other then that, she's up 3+ times a night to nurse. This past week, she's been a mess because of teething and she was a little cranky last week because of her vaccines. A week ago, she randomly started sleeping from 9:30/10 pm until anywhere from 3 to 5 am and then down again until 6:30-7. It was great! She always needs me to nurse her back to sleep. Lately she's been so fussy about going to sleep I've had to side lie with her (she never used to like nursing like that), let her fall asleep for about 10 minutes and then bring her into her bed.

I find what can make or break a good sleeping night for us is how well she eats solids during the day. Some days she's good about it and other days she's just not interested no matter what I give her or when so she makes up for it by nursing like a fiend through the night.

Emma is also awful at taking naps. If I can get her down twice a day for more then 20 minutes, it's a miracle unless we're in the car for a while.

I find what's hard with her is she will not let me just pat her back or rub her tummy, shh her or anything like that. If she cries, she has to be picked up and just wants the boob.

I read on KellyMom that STTN is a developmental thing unfortunately. I've tried all the tricks--tanking them up during the day, earlier naps, lots of activity and it's just hit or miss. I so look forward to the days she'll STTN!

I used the Jay Gordon method with my first DD, too. She's still a cosleeper. And it helped IMMENSELY with our sleep issues. She was a high needs baby and wouldn't sleep without my nipple in her mouth. I was at the end of my rope. Jay Gordon did work for us. I was shocked.

DD2 (15 months) has been a crib baby, zero cosleeping, since 6 months old. She's still up once a night to feed, but I can handle once a night.