Co-sleeping, night nursing, 2 year-old

[numum]

Hi everybody. so I said when my dd turned two, I would night wean her. I just don't have the nerve... When she is 2.5 I would like to try to get pregnant again and I don't want to tandem nurse. However, I think I would like it if she woke up less in the night... but I prefer night waking to night screaming (which I think is required for night weaning)... so I am being kind of lazy about the night weaning - I think I am being HUMANE about it for me and for her, but am I just creating a monster of a problem for later???
How late can one put off night weaning!!?

I am in the same boat apart from not cosleeping anymore.

I'm sort of hoping it will just stop by itself not much help, sorry.

Night weaning takes a couple of nights for babies. I have no idea how long it would take for a toddler, who has a much better idea of what is going on and would probably take a much longer time to forget that she can feed in the night (if she screams for long enough?).

Weaning might be easier on one level, though: Depending on her communication skills, you can tell her that she is a big girl now, a princess (or whatever cartoon character she loves), and princesses sleep through the night in their beds (show pictures in books here). Here is the sippy cup by the bed if she gets thirsty in the night. Here is teddy to hug her through the night. And if she calls for mummy in the night, mummy will come. But there will be no milk because that is for babies.

I don't know about 'humane', by the way. Neither you nor your DD has had a full night's sleep for 2 years.

i agree with the whole princess idea, you could try a reward system, we used a princess and 4 stones which lead to a castle, when they get to the castle they get a reward (which is decided before hand) this worked for our son, and because its visual they can see there progress, and everyone who comes round can add to the praise. we downloaded the princess bits from clipart, and laminated them.

hth mt3 x

hi numum, i am in the same boat. my dd is 21 months and still cosleeps and feeds all night long. i also feel like i'm being kind of lazy in that its just easier for me to roll over and feed her when she gets demanding.
i'm hoping she will self wean, but am giving up hope.

This boat is getting crowded, i'll have to join you and watch with interest.

I found this page from the ever useful Kellymom, with the last paragraph being especially comforting - if all else fails!

I've never had the proiblem but I'm curious, would you stop co-sleeping and go through night weaning at the same time? I stopped BF altogether at 18 months because I was pregnant, and stopped cosleeping before (at about 16 months). The night feeding automatically went down to about 2 feeds a night, and then night weaning was relatively easy - just a couple of nights of crying a bit.

We night weaned at about 22 months because we were all going mad with lack of sleep. We had been doing the various No Cry Sleep Solution techniques for about a year. Eventually we did the Jay Gordon way here. It took about 10 days and it was really hard (actually it was traumatic) but we just had to do it and I don't regret it. Good luck!

that's a great link chunglimum - i'll read him further!

that's comforting bedlam... there's hope yet

i nightweaned ds when he was nearly 2.
first I stopped feeding him to sleep. gave him a cup of water instead.
thenwe talked about how he was a big boy and the kinds of foods that big boys eat and how babies have 'guppa' (nurse).
then during the night if he would wake up I would cuddle him and tell him that the 'guppa' was asleep and he could have some in the morning. i'd usually set a time (for myself) of say, 6am. so no feeding before 6.
he cried. but i didn't just leave him. he still co-slept and got lots and lots of cuddles. it wasn't the easiest thing in the world but it wasn't the hardest.
one thing though. make sure you are wearing pjs that she can't get into and help herself. i had to wear very high necked very long pjs so he would just pull a boob out while i was sleeping!
HTH!

So good to hear other people's experiences of this as it can seem never-ending... i hope OP has had seen the latest entries.