Please give me your best tips for night weaning!

[WalrusGumboot]

DD is nearly 7 months old. Has pretty much always woken up for a feed twice a night and tends to end up in bed with me, although I do return her to the cot (sometimes successfully, sometimes not!) She's still in our room so not sure if we should move her first? With our eldest, dp would go and offer water in a bottle but he was a much more chilled out baby, he would take a bottle and he was in his own room.

On the plus side DD will take water from a sippy cup. Any tips gratefully received!

How was last night man? We had another good night, I can remember exactly what happened tbh!

Ds woke at 3.30. I tried to lay him down next to me to settle but he cried immediately, so I sat up and he slept as soon as I cuddled him. Laid him back down after a couple of minutes. I'm pretty sure he woke around 5 and started having a bf, but next thing I knew dh alarm was going off at 6!!

Wow, Notta, that sounds great!

Not so good here but we clawed it back from disaster in the end. DS woke at 10pm and 1am resettled easily. 2.50am (when he would have had a feed a week ago) all hell broke loose. Managed to calm him quite quickly but he took ages to go back to sleep and then was unsettled and kept waking up. Somewhere in all that, the 4 y.o. woke up and needed putting back to bed twice. 4.10am saw me crawling back into bed crying because I thought I'd probably have to get up for the day in under an hour. But DS slept till 5.40, which is an improvement, and we fed and dozed till 6.20.

It feels crazy, but I'm actually going out tonight. And I get a lie in tomorrow because DH had 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep in a hotel last night!!!

Oh, and DS is having his 12-13 month immunisations this afternoon so I don't know how that's going to affect him, poor little thing. I've already postponed them once so it has to be done today, really.

Oh it's hard isn't it? The mobile lightshow thing had really helped us. Ds has it on at bedtime and watches it til asleep. When he wakes in the night (the first time when he comes from cot to bed) I put it on again. I'm so thrilled that he's falling asleep so quickly and no fuss about bf.

I think a lot of it is because he's just ready for it (16months nearly......) and because he can now fall asleep in his cot at bedtime.

The immunisations were a setback for us at bedtime and with nightwakings for two nights, very hot and grouchy.

Oh and I stayed up til nearly 11last night!!!!

Oh dear typed a very long post but it didn't send! Anyway heading into night 3 of night weaning my DS whose one next week. first night ok, second night hell on earth, hoping he gets it tonight.

Hit a wall with tiredness a couple days ago and have to make a change. he's up a good 7 times a night and has stopped settling after feeds as easily, is just getting worse !

It's encouraging reading your stories guys! I am going to try offering water tonight before feeding. Got 23 and 7 month by myself the next 4 nights so no real hope of any proper effort, but reckon it's worth giving it a go. Hoping she takes more calories at breakfast if she's not getting as many at night, then will get used to it. But I would hate to think she's thirsty as she gulps down water with her food so think she just needs a lot of.fluid.
Buggerlumps fingers crossed tonight goes better for you. Nottalotta that sounds really promising. Manatee enjoy your lie in...

Night 3 was a success! Asleep bu 7, woke briefly at 10:30, only took a few minutes to settle with a cuddle, then slept till just after 5. Feeding him and hoping he'll go back to sleep but the little happy chatter I heard would say otherwise! I hope this is it and not just a one off!

How we're your nights ?

Brilliant news bugger!! Ds was similar, asleep just before 7, and woke at 5.15!! Heard him stir around 2/3am but settled himself back down. Yey!!

I'm so glad I did this. Feel better just taking a bit of control back! I think he did wake a couple of times, babbled to himself, and went back to sleep!

Well done, Bugger and Notta!

We had many wake ups last night I'm thinking because of the jabs but he was still drowsy and quite easy to settle. DH did them all. I'm still hopeful that things are going in the right direction.

We have the Fisher Price Soothe n Glow owl which plays lullabies and has a light, put it on at bedtime and for every wake up. The tinny sound of those tunes will be etched on my brain forever!

It will improve quickly I think man, my reasoning was that even when a couple of nights I had to cuddle back to sleep for half an hour, he wasn't crying and I wasn't feeding. How long does the music go on for with that man? Ours is an ancient Tomy winning the pooh one, music stops after ten minutes which is fine in the middle of the night but at bedtime I have to hover outside the bedroom to tap it back into life. Needs to be on 20-30 minutes really as if it goes off before he's properly asleep, he wakes up, gets up and shouts!

Horrid day today, he's cranky, teethy and overtired from refusing to nap. Got himself in a proper state, not helped by me losing my patience a bit (didn't do anything but had to leave him for a minute, so he was sobbing and hiccuping) . Had to walk him in the pram and he's parked outside the back door, hopefully will sleep for a good stretch.

Notta I think the music lasts for about 20 minutes.

I hope your day improved. We all lose our patience sometimes!

Thanks man I've had far more patience than I ever thought imaginable since having ds. I struggle a bit at times as I really don't get a break, apart from when I go to work and the worry about having two to deal with it setting in. My hips were ridiculously painful so I was really hoping he'd go to sleep in his cot. Wasn't to be......

He's not himself today though. It did improve he woke from his nap after an hour or so feeling sorry for himself so we had a little cuddle on the settee and he fell back to sleep for another hour and half! So I got a snooze too.

Hey, good to see some success on here! I seem to remember we had cracked it in just two nights with ds. He really wasn't impressed with being offered water and pretty much gave up asking.

I won't leave it until she's 1 as I agree with the pp that the older they get the more resistant they get. But after thinking about it I am putting it off for a little while, maybe till she's 9 months. I'm exhausted but I'm coping. It hasn't beaten me yet!

Hi there, I'm just following really. My DD is two now and still wakes at night. Maybe twice usually. However the day starts at 5am.
I'm pretty exhausted generally after all this time. As she's BF it has been down to me. Having read your posts I think I may need to involve dh in night weaning. I've been meaning to start but the exhaustion makes me a bit lazy! That and my DD is particularly determined. If it had been dd1 (who ended up being ff) then I think it would've been done by now.
I think the Christmas break might be the time to take the bull by the horns.
Good luck to you all.

Last night wasn't good. He's got a bit of a cold

I'm not sure what to do because we were doing so well, I stuck it out last night and had no sleep. Part of me thinks because we pregressed the other night, I should just push on as it'll be harder to start from square one, but another part thinks he's poorly and I should do what he wants and never sleep again!

Rotten timing Bugger! Personally I would relax it if he's ill, but of course it's up to you. You can start again when he's feeling better and hopefully he'll remember the drill.

Hi peachy. Would a Gro Clock help with the early starts or is it a feed she's after at 5am?

We night weaned at 9-10months. Just took one feed at a time and fed for shorter and shorter periods. Once a feed stopped, I didn't go back!
I did offer water / a hand hold at wake ups though.
After 5am she would never go back to sleep so I always fed after that. It's only now at nearly 18months that she will go to 6am (and she only sleeps through 50% of the time - it's not from hunger though!)

Goid luck justpeachy, fwiw, I've done it alone with ds, and he's taken to it very well. It just proved to me that it's comfort he wants, and a cuddle in bed has done the trick.

Bugger - it's hard to know what to do isn't it? I haven't 'given in' except to feed ten minutes earlier than planned a couple of times. Ds has been off colour for a week or so but nothing too terrible at night. He was quite unsettled last night, and did a fair amount of trumps so think it was wind bothering him. He's been a bit teethy and a bit of a cold I think, he doesn't look right bless him. I think.if he was really struggling I would feed him - I am sure the Dr Jay Gordon method suggests that you do if necessary.

In an unexpected turn of events, dp picked up dd when she cried late last night as I was so tired, and he soothed her back to sleep with a cuddle! Disclaimer: he's always been able to rock her to sleep, but only ever done it in the evening (while I do ds' bedtime), not during the night.

I'm so exhausted that I've nearly fallen over having picked her up out of her cot. I feel like a liability at the moment.

Sorry to hear about the cold, Bugger. It's so hard to know what to do, especially as there always seems to be something at this age. I'd say trust your instincts but not sure if that's particularly helpful!

We are hanging in there and I'm feeling OK about things today. 2 or 3 wake ups last night - can't actually remember - but he settled OK and was up for the day at 5.30 without doing his annoying unsettled thing from around 4.

We had bad nights on Friday and Saturday, and I was getting quite despairing about the number of wake ups, so we decided to try the method from the famous "What worked for us" thread to help DS fall asleep by himself. We had been jiggling his bottom or firmly rubbing his back to get him to sleep every single time he woke. I'm still slightly disbelieving, but so far it's really working; he absolutely seems to "get" that we expect him to fall asleep by himself and there has been very little crying. Not all what I expected. Of course, he has still not slept through the night once in his little life. I will keep you all posted!

That's good news Walrus! At least you know dh can help out now and share the load.

Man which method areyou using, is it luke the gradual withdrawal? that's what I've done with ds at bedtime but not transferred to overnight yet.

He woke at about midnight last nightmare seemed to be having or have had a bad dream. He wasn't crying as such (no tears) but wailing, as if scared. I though we were in for a bad night but he slept then til 5.15 when he wasn't even that interested in his one remaining bf!

Thanks Notta he did it again last night. Think we'll try to get him to do at least one settle (the first one probably) per night and use it as a really gentle introduction to night weaning. It saves me a bit of energy anyway.

Your poor DS. It's awful when they're scared as you have no idea why, or what their little imaginations have put them through!

Notta Yes, it's basically gradual withdrawal. We have a chair right next to his cot and sit on that shushing and talking to him but not touching him, except I will gently put a hand on his back if he's crying a lot. That said, there has been very little crying and it really seems to be helping him to resettle himself. There were a couple of times last night when we heard him starting to cry but he stopped within a couple of minutes. Only one proper wake up when DH had to go in. Progress!