Successful weaning stories

[youaremychocolatecake]

Hello all, I have EBF for 10.5 months and have been ready to stop for about 4 months but baby has had other ideas. At first he flat out refused a bottle but after much persistence he will now take about an oz from a bottle (hipp organic). I've been thinking I will wait until he's 12 months before getting serious about stopping but I have literally been awake all night feeding him like a newborn and I can't function like it anymore.

His dad won't even look after him as he's so difficult to settle without the booby. I'm going back to work next month and this along with lack of sleep is stressing me out.

So having made my decision. What I need to know now is how? How have people weaned, at what age? How long did it take? He's at the age now where he's strong and he knows what he wants so will just try and lift my top up or get to the breast however he can.

If we're out of the house, he's fine. Inside the house he's on me constantly and I now feel like I'm being unfair on my 5 year old as I spend so much time feeding him to sleep/naps etc.

Thanks

[Imeg]

I stopped feeding to sleep for various reasons but partly because I also felt like I couldn't leave baby with husband as he didn't have the confidence to settle him. I was also ill and I wanted to make sure that if we had to change to formula we could without also having trouble with the sleeping. Although in the end I have continued breastfeeding.
So I was just wondering whether you could approach this as two separate issues - weaning and feeding to sleep?
After attempts at more gradual/gentle methods which really didn't work we solved the feeding to sleep with controlled crying at 5.5 months and (touches wood hastily) so far it's worked really well - the first few nights he cried a lot but now I can put him down and he goes to sleep by himself and wakes up less often in the night (though he was already quite a good sleeper). I know it's not for everyone but that's what we did.
He is really not keen on a bottle but will take some formula from a sippy cup if I prop him up on the sofa or similar - doesn't like being held.

[youaremychocolatecake]

Thank you for the advice :)

[PenguinsIsSleepDeprived]

The likelihood is that your husband needs to step up and do nights. It is very hard to wean a determined bf baby at night when the temptation is right there (and, TBH, refusing to look after your own child is just silly).

You could start with night weaning and get your DH to go in equipped with either water or milk (up to you, could probably do water at this age if he's eating a lot in the day). It might be hideous for a night or two, but he'll get there.