Night weaning my 26 month old.

DD is 26 months old, she BFs three times a day ( was more but its gone down in the last few weeks) and a few times over night, im trying to cut out the night feeds as we are expecting our 2nd child in march and not keen on having them both feeding over night.

I have been wodering how to get started for a few weeks but then she slept through the night without any help (normally she wakes at 1am and some times 4am then up at 6am) so she skipped the night feeds for four days straight. I thought she might keep going but two nights ago she woke at 4am, i didnt feed her, we had talked about not having a BF over night and she was ok with it, but she didnt go back to sleep properly after waking, last night she woke at 1am and again, no BF i just cuddled with her in her bed but again she didnt really sleep properly after waking up. I had to stay with her casue evey time i moved she sat bolt upright and asked if it was time to get up.:doh:

Am i doing the right thing by just not feeding her and hoping she will get used to it and stop waking up or atleast go back to sleep properly after a cuddle and sleep the rest of the night.

It was so hard not to just feed her cause i knew she would go back to sleep properly after 5 mins on the bb, but she wasnt upset or anything about not having it, she has a good understanding of why shes not having a BF over night.

Just questioning what and how im doing it and would love to hear what others have done. TIA

Subbing, as I am in a similar situation. DS is 19 months, still feeds 2 or more times overnight - and I'd like to night wean soon - definitely before next bub!

wasnt there a thread somewhere about all the ins and outs of bfing two.....i cant find it? sure you were in there? might be wrong. :)

As she is not upset and seems to understand what's going on I would just keep going the way you're going. Might take her a bit to get used to but I reckon you're on the right track! We night weaned DD at about 14 months I think and she was ready then, it didn't take long, I think it was just more of a habit for her. We sort of used the Jay Gordon method but modified it a bit.

Sounds like this is probably a good approach for you. She'll probably just need a little time to adjust - don't be surprised if her resistance actualy increases tonight or tomorrow, it can go that way, but it sounds like she'll be fine once she gets used to going back to sleep without it.

we also used jay gordan, just modified to suit us!

Thanks all, i talked to her about it before bed again today and she was fine with knowing she want going to have a feed over night, told me she was a big girl now mummy!!

i know nothing about jay gordan....off to google i go!

I have just recently cut our feeds from approx 4 a day to just 1. A feed on wakeup from afternoon sleep, a feed before bed, a feed at 12-2amish and then a dawn feeding frenzy. Ironically he was happy to cut all feeds as long as he get's his dawn feed. I am still undecided when to cut this feed completely yet but it's a wait and see approach.

I think following your DD is the key, when DS is upset I try distraction and tell him to he will get a feed at dawn (or through the day in your case) he might have a bit of a whinge but accepts it.

:hug: goodluck

sounds like you are doing exactly the right thing. Communicating with her in this way seems to be the kindest way to do it. My DD is the same age, but doesn't night feed, (although when she was sick the other night and asked for mummy milk we sat and had a night feed). TBH I can't even remember how she stopped with those, maybe it was when I got pg with number 2, so at least once this bub is born in the next couple of weeks I won't have to worry about night feeding two. '

The only thing is since she sounds very reasonable and you can talk to her about not feeding at night, do you think that you can talk to her about not needing you to stay in bed with her, cos it might be, that you are actually keeping her awake by staying in there with her. Like with DD if she wakes up at 4 in the morning I would just go in there and say 'sweetheart it's not morning yet, it's still dark outside, so close your eyes and go back to sleep.' if she asks me to sit on the floor or stay in her room, I just say 'I'll watch you for a minute' and then after that time I'll say 'ok, mummy is going to go now, but I'll be back to check on you very soon, ok?' and then I go, and depending on if she falls straight back to sleep i do or don't come back in. It is only if she is getting sick or if we've had a really big day with lots of unfamiliar people around that she won't go back to sleep, and then we bring her to our bed, instead of staying in her room.

Given her age, and she does sound very reasonable and bright, I would say you won't have too much trouble with all of this, and if you can keep feeding her during the day, then she probably won't miss it too much once she learns to settle herself (when she wakes up) at night.
Good luck!

jessicakate, that sounds like a great idea, i actally said to her last night, ''you know if you wake up you can just go back to sleep without me coming in because you dont have a BFd anymore'' she didnt say anything, but i didnt get a night time call so i dont know if she woke up or not. i think i will definatley try that idea next time! thanks

So it's going well then Beckoes?