I need to night wean my 19mo - how on earth do I go about it?

[Alibabaandthe40nappies]

Advice needed from those who have night weaned very determined toddlers please!

I am keen to carry on feeding, but not in the middle of the night. We are ending up with DS in our bed more and more, and although there are aspects of co-sleeping which I love, for us there are more cons. None of us really sleep properly, DH is getting kicked out and ending up in the spare room most nights, and the constant feeding through the night is (I think) shortening my luteal phase which isn't going help with wanting to TTC DC2 in a couple of months!

So help me ladies - what strategies have worked for you?

We night weaned at 19 months for similar reasons (I hadn't had a period and we were keen to TTC DC2). We were co-sleeping by design, however.
We set times that the 'milk was sleeping'- I think we started with 12-6. I slept in the spare room and DH dealt with all the wakings between those times. If DS got very upset I came back to feed him. The first night I think we got to about 4:30ish before DS became inconsolable, but by about night 3 or 4 he was sleeping 10-6 without milk.
I got my period back the next week and 2 months later was pregnant!

However, since we continued to co-sleep, DS gradually started night-feeding again. We did the same thing again 2 weeks ago and this time round it has been much easier. DS is often now doing 8-6:30 (though if he wakes before 11pm I will sometimes bf him back to sleep) and I currently have a double bed to myself- which is lovely when 6 months pregnant . The next step is moving DS into his own bed.

Other things that helped were giving plenty of warning and talking about milk being asleep at night and awake when it is daytime.
Also, DH was doing the bedtime and getting DS off to sleep, so he was already used to going to sleep without breastfeeding.

Hope some of this is helpful- sorry about the essay!

That is all very helpful, thank you

At the moment I BF him to sleep often, or either DH or I sit in his room while he falls asleep.

Have just had a chat with DH and he is going to try and settle DS without me giving him a feed tonight to see what happens and then we will take it from there.

I don't know if it's as relevant as FM's post as I night weaned at 10 months.... But I just stopped feeding at night and offered a cup of water instead - DS had been waking up 3/4 times a night, but it was just for comfort rather than hunger. It took about 2 weeks but a friend who did the same with all three of her daughters said it took less than a week! Since then (apart from the odd cold/teething) he sleeps through pretty much every night.