Hey,
Seeking some positive stories and tips for night weaning a breastfeeding and co-sleeping 18mo.
Daytime - trying to reduce feeds to a morning and night feed which is easier on childminder days.
Overnight - DS sleeps on floor bed in his own room. I feed to sleep and feed back to sleep on each wake up. He wakes up multiple times until I eventually get in bed with him around 11pm. E.g he goes to sleep at 7pm, wakes up and cries for me every half an hour/hour until I eventually cave and get in bed with him. He sleeps a longer stretch when I’m next to him, so I think my presence is a huge sleep association for him. He then latches throughout the night but I’m so delirious that I hardly notice, he probably feeds twice more until wake up at 7am.
I went through a period of trying to rock/pat him to sleep for naps and tried this going to sleep at night a couple of times. There were lots of tears. I’ve recently returned to work so have reverted back to what is easiest and means we all get more sleep.
DS doesn’t respond to Dad settling for sleep. On the odd occasion I go out during nap tIme or bedtime sleep, it’s chaos and DS cries a lot. I have settled for every single sleep and wake since he’s been born.
I think it would benefit all of us if he slept longer stretches throughout the night. Trying not to feel guilty for the habits I’ve created and trying to be proud of myself for parenting, with no break or family help.
So please share any tips on night weaning and what worked for you. Keen to hear how people weaned gently.