11 month old night weaning

[GGS01]

I have a 11 month old boy who was exclusively breastfed till last month and he now takes 1 bottle during the day. He has 3 meals a day and 1 snack. During the day he nurses as soon as he wakes up, 1 bottle after lunch and then feeds to sleep at night and wakes up every 1.5 hrs to 2 hrs till he wakes up for the day. It is starting to get really tough for me as I haven't slept for more than 2.5 hrs at a time in 11 months. He has recently started taking two 1 hr naps during the day and I can't nap at that time as I have to get some work done. I have tried rocking him to sleep when he wakes up at night but he will twist and scream in my hands until he is fed. He will not settle for my husband also at night.
I would love to night wean him or at least drop to 2 to 3 feeds in the night. But I am not sure how to go about it as he will scream and scream until he gets milk. I don't want to try CIO but is that the only solution for me? All suggestions are welcome.

Hiya, I just wanted to suggest using the Jo Frost CTT (controlled timed crying) as it worked a treat with ours at 12 months. You just gotta be 100% committed and once you decide to do it, don't go back on it.

At 11 months old, your baby really doesn't need night feeds from a hunger point of view (thats just my opinion) and I am sure that they would settle into a nice morning and evening feed routine if you did the training.

I know JUST what its like, sleep deprivation is an absolute killer, I co slept, fed on demand for a year and you just get to the point where you can not continue.

Sending you the best of luck!

Bless you! That is a long time to go without a decent stretch of sleep. I might weaned my 6 month old by first dropping the night feed that he drank the least on. When he woke for this, I just tried to resettle him with a cuddle. Then a week later I stopped giving him the first feed of the night. Then after two weeks he only had one feed at about 1am. Then we dropped that one by giving him a cuddle and putting him back down in the cot. He did cry but we comforted him until he was sleepy - prob after an hour. This felt like a really gentle approach. My tips - do this when you're feeling like you have the energy. It's no good if you're exhausted as you'll just want the easy option to get him back to sleep - i.e a feed. Also, I stopped feeding him to sleep so he didn't associate the boob with sleep. This really helped him to fall asleep independently. There were tears, but I never left him to cry - I cuddles him until he was calm and sleepy. Good luck, you deserve a good sleep by the sounds of things!

I know I can't avoid the tears but I just wasn't sure how much of it I could take. I am at a breaking point. My husband often catches me staring daggers at the baby in the middle of the night. I will have to bite down and try stopping 1 feed at a time like you guys suggested. I really appreciate your suggestions. Thank you.

The thing I kept telling myself during the tears was that my baby needed a good night sleep too. It's so important for their development and general contentment. My boy is so much happier now he sleeps well. So just remember that you're doing this for your baby's benefit. Good luck.