Bit confused re night weaning

[widdle]

Did anyone's babies just wean themselves or do you HAVE to do night weaning to avoid a non-sleeping nightmare.

I currently have a non-sleeping nightmare . He will be 12 months old this month and I'm not planning on weaning for a couple of months yet (or maybe sooner if things don't improve).

My problem is that DS never has rigidly fixed nightly wake ups - I often hear people say things like "my DC has dropped the 4am feed" DS just randomly wakes up - sometimes after an hour, sometimes after 3 hours, sometimes sleeps through to 5am. He went through a period from about 6-8 months of being a dream - self settled, had one feed a night, that was it - bliss!! The last couple of months has been a complete nightmare though - up 2 - 5 times a night and refuses to self settle so is fed to sleep again!! I've put this down to teething, illness and regression as he now sits up or stands up and cries when he wakes up.

Soooooooooo at what age is nightweaning recommended? And what do you do when your DC's are ill or teething? Do you go back to feeding (especially if they have a fever)? So confused!!!

i didn't nightwean any of my lot, they all just slept through eventually

Thanks spottydolphin - at what age did they sleep through? [Hopeful]

ds1 was around 6 months
ds2 was um, about 3 years (sorry)
ds3 was somewhere in the middle... around 2ish I think?
ds4 is newborn so doesn't count yet

I think all babies are different. I was able to night-wean DS at 15 month's using this method. it was easy so I concluded he must have been ready. tried it on DD about the same age...did not work! she's 18 months now and I have got her into a routine of just one side then cuddled back to sleep (occasionally after a few tears) until her next waking - she seems to have got used to this and now wakes less frequently (like maybe 3 times a night instead of 6+)

the thing to be aware of though is that some people night-wean and their babies still wake through the night and they then don't have the crutch of feeding to get them back to sleep - so it might be a bit if trial and error to see if you can settle him another way.

at the moment DD has gone back to co-sleeping full time but I fully intend to get her back in the cot in a few weeks. I always try and remind myself that everything when they're small is just a phase and they can get used to new things over time when they're ready.

with DS I found I enjoyed the day time feeds more when I wasn't getting up at night so was able to carry on for a lot longer.

I think 12 months is the recommended minimum age for the method above, hope something works for you