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  1. #21
    PGTB is offline Gold level (500+ posts)
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
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    770

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    We have started with night time weaning and that part has been successful so far. the first week, DH has slept with DS in the bedroom and I slept in the living room. this way DS could not find me to cry his way to the boob. After about 2-3 days DS would become very easy to soothe without nursing. the problem though, is that DH would bring DS into our bed to make it easier for him to pat his back and soothe him and of course DS has taken a liking to sleeping in our bed!

    After a week, I came back to family bed and started sleeping on the other side of the bed, while DH would sleep on the side of the crib. DS would wake up and not be able to see me, so this worked, but the fact that we had to bring DS into our bed still remained.

    Now, we are sleeping with DS pretty much every day. Before it used to be we co-slept only after 4am (if DS would wake up for his usual 2 hour play period too early in the morning, but not technically in the middle of the night). Now, he has another cold and we feel sorry for him, so he has been in our bed pretty much since the beginning of the night.

    co-sleeping isn't something we planned, but it has been working so far in getting us all a bit more sleep. I guess, the main thing that it helps is eliminating the prolonged 2 hour wakeful periods in the middle of the night, hopefully, keeping our fingers crossed.

    I am also glad to stop BFing in the middle of the night. I honestly don't miss it, I still nurse in the mornings and at night and pump 2 times a day. I hope the night weaning is permanent.

    Next thing we have to work on is getting DS to sleep in his crib again. That will probably be a hard one and we will have to wait till he gets healthy and well again for any sort of training. Any tips from co-sleepers on getting your baby successfully sleeping in their own beds?

  2. #22
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Location
    Chicagoland
    Posts
    102

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    Hi there,
    My son is 5-months and I am in the same boat as you. Lots of night-feedings, sleepless nights, and I work full time. I am encouraged by your idea of sleeping in the living room and having DH soothe in the middle of the night to end the night-weanings. I really want to try it. A week seems totally doable! DS sleeps in a bed-side crib (the Arm's Reach co-sleeper) and often ends up in the bed with us. Well, always ends up in the bed with us.
    I'm not sure how this forum is set up, but is there a way we could message back and forth to compare notes? I added you to my contacts, but don't know what that does.... :-)
    Sarah

    DS1 8/2010
    DS2 11/2012

  3. #23
    PGTB is offline Gold level (500+ posts)
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
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    770

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    Quote Originally Posted by Schmitty21 View Post
    Hi there,
    My son is 5-months and I am in the same boat as you. Lots of night-feedings, sleepless nights, and I work full time. I am encouraged by your idea of sleeping in the living room and having DH soothe in the middle of the night to end the night-weanings. I really want to try it. A week seems totally doable! DS sleeps in a bed-side crib (the Arm's Reach co-sleeper) and often ends up in the bed with us. Well, always ends up in the bed with us.
    I'm not sure how this forum is set up, but is there a way we could message back and forth to compare notes? I added you to my contacts, but don't know what that does.... :-)
    Hi there and ! I have to post another update now because things have changed and not necessarily for the better as far as night weaning is concerned.

    It so happened, we all got sick with a very bad cold and I had to resume the night time feedings in order for all of us to get as much sleep and rest as possible. We co-slept during this time as we had no energy to do anything else and I found feeding DS on my side laying down to be comfortable enough and easy to put him to sleep while I was not feeling well. After we all recovered, of course, we were facing night wakings for feeding again. The only good thing for now is that DS is not waking as frequently. it's more like every 3 hours and we don't waste time and just take him to bed and I nurse laying down.

    When it's time for DS to go down for the night time, it's a huge problem because he is not willing to go into his crib when I am around. I nurse him to bed, but the moment I try to put him into the crib he cries bloody murder. So, DH to the rescue again. He manages to put him to sleep into his crib after I leave the room.

    As you see I am nowhere near advising anyone how to sleep train their LO I usually hope I can get some helpful advice around here and many ladies here have been very helpful and knowledgeable. We are not out of the woods yet, not at all. Perhaps, if we were to not get sick and stick with the night weaning it would have worked. In real life though things can regress when circumstances demand for it and training has to resume again. I am planning to start in a week or two and we also want to train DS to go down to sleep in his crib whether it's me or DH putting him to bed.

    One advice I can give you with long night time wakeful periods, if this is also a problem for you, is to try to tire you LO as much as you can during the day and before bed. Make sure you baby has lots of time to practice new skills - lot of tummy time and not always being carried around or confined to various seats/bouncers/exersaucers/baby restraining devices. 5 months is a period when they really start to enjoy new mobility - learn to roll over, then from then on - sit up and then crawl. For some babies, like our DS, this results in major sleep disruptions like 2 hour wakeful periods during the night. If they don't get enough practice during the day, I am guessing they take this exercise to the nighttime. At least this is what we sort of noticed about DS. When we would tire him out, he usually slept better and didn't wake up for 2 hours to stay up at night. At least this is my new theory for now

    If your baby is reverse-cycling because you are at work and wants to nurse at night, you can try what we tried, hopefully it will work for you and your DS will start eating more during the night.

    If you want to send private messages, there is a way to do this here. It will send a sort of an e-mail to a particular user without sending to the entire thread. You can PM me if you have specific questions.

    HTH and GL!

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