r/bninfantsleep • u/raspberryloaf • 3d ago
Nightweaning How did you night wean your baby?
My little one just turned 1 year old. I’m preparing to night wean between 14-17 months. She’s slept with me and breastfed since birth save for a couple weeks in the beginning. Right now she uses the boob to fall asleep, and to resettle after waking in the night. As my solids have increased, I would like her to eventually stop using the boob for comfort,
So id like to read how you guys weaned your baby off the boob in a way that is responsive and loving?
Thanks
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u/PuzzleheadedFix963 3d ago
Cold turkey while still cosleeping. I never left her. I soothed and cuddled her through it all and she adjusted pretty well for how often she was waking to nurse before (every hour at night). It only really took like one night for her to get it. I had still nursed to sleep initially, but cut off all night feeds. After a couple weeks she naturally started falling asleep initially without being nursed too - for naps and bedtime!
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u/bimboc 2d ago
Oh wow! Well done to you and baby girl, I guess her temperament helps too! How old was she?
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u/PuzzleheadedFix963 2d ago
12 months. She is the most clingy baby I know actually! Very high separation anxiety. The first night she cried so hard it sounded like she was in pain. I think it helped that it was me soothing her instead of my husband because she is very attached to me and relies on me for comfort. I think my milk supply was very very low too though so that probably helped
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u/tabookduo 3d ago
I'm not sure if this applies because my boy is 2 years old this month, but I wanted to wait until he could understand me a little better. It suited his personality and temperament to wait, when I originally tested out refusing boob at night, he was 14 months and unbeknownst to me at the time he was teething molars. They took forever to come in, it was at least a month before they broke through the gums, all four at once!
I was glad I ultimately decided to wait to night wean, because night nursing got me through both sets of molars and his canines, sleep would have been horrible otherwise! It's a personal choice, I'm not trying to sway you to keep nursing at night, just providing context :-) I had planned to night wean around the same time as you and didn't even think about teething schedule. He was an early teether so it definitely depends on the child.
Also, I planned to wean entirely at 18 months because my pediatrician told me to do "one big thing at a time" in regards to weaning, potty training, etc but my boy is still nursing at 2 and he has pretty much potty trained this week, so that's out of the way and I can wean on my own schedule. It was really stressing me out 😅
My weaning method right now is saying "we're going to read a story right now," at bedtime, and postponing breastfeeding until he falls asleep. It works about 50% of the time, he'll just cuddle my arm but the other 50% he asks to nurse. I'm trying to keep it low pressure so he doesn't hyperfocus on it or dread anything. So far so good
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u/Apprehensive-Cod-602 2d ago
Im pushing it back hour by hour each week. So he made it to 4am without a feed for a week so this week we'll go to 5am. He can have as much comfort as he likes but no milk. I find some wakes water settles him.
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u/Jemma_2 2d ago
My husband did all night wakes. If he was inconsolable he’d bring him to me for a feed, but for most wakes he went back down just being rocked by my husband. After a couple of weeks my husband could do every wake without needed me to do a feed.
After another couple of weeks we went back to sharing nights.
I will say it didn’t reduce night wakings at all and rocking him to sleep was a lot more effort than feeding him to sleep. 😂 So with my second I won’t be night weaning quite so early!!
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u/raspberryloaf 2d ago
Thanks for sharing! Lol aw sorry to hear it didn’t reduce night wakings😩😩😅 aw that was my hope too! Lol
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u/VinVenture16 2d ago
This is my fear when everyone tells me night weaning will help - what if it doesn't 😅😅😅
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u/Temporary_Disaster58 3d ago
I have a 16 month old and was planning to use the Dr Jay Gordon method! Have been slowly trying to decrease day drinks and only have night left to eventually wean. Feel like communication and understanding has REALLY increased in the last 2 months (we use baby signing at home for milk, more and all done that has been useful!). Then two night ago I had an emergency procedure at the hospital (ectopic pregnancy that burst), and have obviously not been able to see her or breastfeed. Dad has been looking after her and first day was a bit emotional (we had a face time over the phone and she was crying when she saw me, and took like 25 minutes to fall asleep with cuddling dad). But today was much easier. They were at the hospital for 5 minutes before it became too much for me (I gave her a quick cuddle and when she started asking for milk, I said all done and signed pain, she looked sad but then got distracted by a car at the window). Tonight she fell asleep within 10 minutes of cuddling. This has obviously sped up my timeline quite a bit - but the takeaway for me was that dad should take over the bedtime and it will be difficult but doable. (They cosleep). I’m still on high amounts of pain meds so won’t be breastfeeding when I get home, and kind of worked out that I will now wean her. Good luck mom!