Wish me luck with nightweaning

[miki]

We just went to the ped today who thought DD is doing great and really does not need the one nursing she has in the middle of the night. She just started pulling up and yesterday let go to stand by herself for a second. She was sleeping thru until morning more frequently up until just before she started pulling up. So I think I'm going to give her a chance to see if she stops waking on her own but then I'm serious about trying to nightwean. I really feel like I need some predictable sleep when I go to bed at night.

My biggest worry is how to do this by myself. I don't think DH can help because DD is not at all comforted by him during the night. DH works a lot so DD only sees him in the morning, she is not at all used to him putting her down to sleep at any time. During the day she throws quite a fit if he does not pick her up and hold her. She also throws a fit if he puts her down or gives her to me when he has to leave. But in the middle of the night when she wakes up, she only wants mommy and will just keep crying even if he's holding her. She does this even if she doesn't want to nurse.

I plan to decrease the time she spends nursing gradually. But not so sure what to do after that. The strategies I read about and have seen people post about enlist DH to help comfort at that point. But since DH just makes DD cry, that won't work. Any thoughts, ladies?

[ALLEYCAT]

I can't offer any advice, not quite there yet myself. I just wanted to say hang in there and congradulations on her standing on her own! I will be reasding the other posts to see what the solution may be.

[deenass]

Well, I nightweaned my son at about 10 months and after about 2-3 weeks of sitting in his room while he cried, I resorted to CIO. It wasn't what I wanted to do, but truthfully, I really wanted to sleep.

It took about a week and I felt like an awful mother each night, but when i woke the following day and had the energy to deal with my son I felt a lot better.

Good luck!

[pritchettzoo]

I think Rachel recommended a book recently by Dr. Jay Gordon on this. Here's the thread: http://www.windsorpeak.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=86&topic_id=5242&mode=full -- I believe Debbi posted that she was successful. If you search for Jay Gordon in this forum, you'll pull up lots of threads on nightweaning.

Good luck! :)

Anna

[kaitlinsmommy]

I used Dr. Jay Gordon's approach and it was really helpful. My husband has never comforted dd at night either so I understand where you're coming from. It can be hard (she still wakes up sometimes and cries) but overall, it is improving. Good luck to you!