hi goddessofdawn

i was really happy to read people's stories as well! now we're a few months on and my DS turned 1 a couple of months ago. i've only just started to try & night wean - i wanted to wait until he was 12 months/i thought he was ready.

at about 11 months he'd become less consistent on the feeding to sleep & so i decided he was ready for me to gently break this habit. i didn't really take note of how long it took, but it was only a few days before he stopped feeding to sleep & i could put him down sleepy but awake - a state that i had thought just didn't exist for him! i still continued to feed back to sleep overnight because i thought he needed it (emotionally) & i was too tired to try & break the cycle.

we haven't quite come to the end of the nightweaning - i've chosen to try the jay gordan approach - but i can't believe the progress we've made. while the wakings haven't really reduced in number (but i don't expect that for another week or two), he can be patted back to sleep instead of 'needing' the feed. i can't comment on whether babies become more difficult to nightwean as they get older as DS is my first but i don't believe he was ready at 8 months & i do believe he's ready now & that's why he's responding.

i think it is possible they stop waking for feeds on their own but also think it depends on the baby. with my DS, i'm not sure that would have been anytime soon & i know it was habit/emotional because the few times he's stayed with DP's mum in the evening, we've had to wake him to pick him up & take him home & he'll have been asleep for 4+ hours (where at home he'll wake 2 hourly).

i think the other thing to consider is that even with nightweaning, i have to be prepared that my DS may continue to wake overnight, he just won't need a feed to go back to sleep.

anyways, sorry for the essay! hope it works out for you, whatever you decide to do - it sounds like your DD is going in the right direction if she is waking less than she was (i.e. 1-2 times a night rather than 3) so she may well get there soon on her own