To think night weaning doesn't mean sleeping through the night?

[Horehound]

I was set on starting to night wean my boy (17m) and thought that when he does this he will then sleep through the night. But it's just dawned on me that actually he could still wake up and want to be cuddled or something instead.
As I understand it sleeping through is a developmental milestone so if he hasn't reached that yet am I still in for nights of broken sleep?

I don't want to do controlled crying or cry it out.
Aibu?

Yabu - your child will sleep through if you night wean.
Yanbu - there's every chance he will still wake up.

Yanbu he may well still wake up and wake ups will probably be longer and more difficult. But my LO first slept through a week post night weaning and although he still occasionally has nighttime parties these are few and far between and it is far better than the 2 or 3 times I was getting up before.

It’s not guaranteed but my 21 month old had never slept through the night and within 2 weeks of weaning she was sleeping through. Used to be multiple wake ups every night.

I had one that slept through after night weaning and one that still got up to play for a couple of hours at night until we did sleep training. So think it varies by the childs degree of stubbornness and personality and ability to self soothe in other ways.

It's not a guarantee but it usually helps.

Sleeping through usually happens when they can get to sleep by themselves at bedtime and don't need a feed, so you will probably need to get both those things in place.

DS still wakes up a couple of times a night, and he’s almost 4. Usually midnight and about 4am. Has been night weaned for three years, and fully weaned for 2.5. It’s either nothing (just a light sleep cycle), or he wants a drink, which he can manage by himself.

At least at this age we can just yell “go back to sleep!” at him without getting out of bed ourselves.

Both of mine still woke after night weaning. But it did mean that DH could go in and pat/smooth back to sleep instead. So I got some nights of unbroken sleep.

Night weaned 10 months. Slept through 14 months

Hi! I’ve recently stopped giving my 16 month old milk in the night (bottle fed). He’s always been a terrible sleeper - two hour stretch of sleep was considered good going. It has improved our night time sleep, but we still have a few wake ups and I can soothe him with a dummy/drink of water if needed/pats on the bum or back stroke. I’m about a week in and I do think we’re getting better.
I do the same routine for nap time which I think has helped his adjustment to it. So no milk in his cot, he has some milk sat on the sofa cuddled in to me, then we go to his cot without the bottle.
I’m glad we’ve done it, it has helped!

Honestly no idea if it will mean he sleeps through. I night weaned mine when I stopped breast feeding at 2 1/2. He started sleeping through for the first time ever within a week, it kind of lasted about 3 months, but he’s absolutely terrible at sleep so even now he’s 3 I’m up with home most nights. Good luck though

2 DC, both night weaned around 17 months. 1 slept through soon after, the other slept through age 6 but still wakes most night at 9.

And at 9 they still wake us (me) for a cuddle most nights

My Youngest was night weaned at a year and still
Frequently wakes
At 2

Forgot to say that I initially tried night weaning but was still feeding in the day and it was a disaster. My DD just didn’t seem to understand why she could have milk in the day and not at night and she continued waking up and just stayed awake and got more and more angry. It was awful. It wasn’t until I weaned fully that we saw the improvement in her sleep.

Unfortunately,waking up won't be solved by just weaning the little one.
There will be 100s of other reasons like ilness,teething,bad dreams,toilet training later on,wanting a cuddle and so on.

Worked for 1dc

Reduced wakings for 1dc

Made no difference for 1dc

With my first it made it far worse. Rather than a quick bottle and back to sleep, it took hours until she was ready to (sometimes) sleep through

Both of mine slept through once they were night weaned.
Both were over the age of 2. They would wake up multiple times in the night.
It was only when they were night weaned they slept through

I night weaned my 3 children just before 1. Up until then they were waking ridiculously frequently to feed back to sleep. All three stopped waking almost entirely(though 2 of them would still come to our bed and then go straight to sleep).
With all three, when they tried to feed, I cuddled and comforted them, but refused to feed them. I was amazed each time how quickly they accepted it. The first night they all really cried(maybe for an hour max), then within a couple of nights stopped waking for milk. I think I based it on a book, where you gradually increase the period of time where you refuse milk(eg first night was 12-5), but I can’t remember the name.
Good luck.

No, it doesn't. My first night weaned on her own at 9 months. She slept through regularly in her own room from 3.5. Second I night weaned at 14 months and while he mostly sleeps through now as of the past couple months (he'll be 3 next month), I would say he still wakes maybe twice a week. It does make things easier, but for me that was primarily because we co-sleep part-time. If I had to get up, go to their room, and soothe them back to sleep in there, it would be a nightmare. But I just bring them in and they go back to sleep with me and I get more sleep that way too. It does save the hassle of feeding them though and fully waking up more.

I night weaned at 9 months but baby still wakes up at nearly one. Like anything, it seems to go in phases. Currently waking up only once which is fine. Who knows why they wake up, could be any number of reasons. I try to relax and pray that it passes.

My DC, both toddlers, slept through the night straightaway when I stopped BF altogether.

Not a guarantee, at all, but we night weaned because I was having problems with recurrent mastitis and he slept through within a week or so.

The process of night weaning was much harder than just feeding him though!

Night weaning and sleeping for longer periods definitely went hand in hand for DC1 but he did still wake a couple of times for a cuddle. The benefits were:

• slept longer periods (4hours Vs 90mins)
• would be settled by DH, not just me. Do I got loads more sleep!
• saved my sanity!

Oh, DC1 was 15months at night weaning. DC2 night weaned herself at 10 weeks and slept 10pm-7am from then on pretty much.

We did sleep training at 7 months and ended night feeds then - DS slept through within three nights.