Does anyone have experience of night weaning ? Not cc related but hope someone can help x
Yes! It was hard work for us. Our problem was that dd was always fed to sleep, so whenever she woke during the night she looked for boob to get back asleep. For us to night wean I first had to stop feeding her to sleep, so that was the hard part really.
I moved her last feed to before bath etc and did it downstairs, bright room, TV on etc so she didn't fall asleep. Then bath, pj's and a few books, quiet room, dimmed lights, all very relaxing. Then popped her into the cot and yes, she cried, roared, screamed but I stayed right beside her cot and ssshed her and soothed her until she eventually fell asleep (50 minutes the first night!) (it's not "cry-it-out" because you are there with them). We did this for 3 nights (and naps) and after that, I moved from beside the cot to across the room. 3 nights later I moved to the door, then outside the door and then eventually I didn't need to be there anymore. Now we just pop her in the cot after her story and close the door and she chats herself to sleep!
Anyway, I'm straying from the point. Maybe your little one can fall asleep himself? If so ignore all that! But usually the main reason for night wakings is not hunger but comfort.
Once we started the steps above, we put my boobs on lockdown during the night. This meant that if dd woke at all before 6am, my hubby had to go in and soothe her back to sleep so that she wouldn't hear/see/smell me at all. Hubby had to soothe her without taking her out of the cot, so this meant sssshing her, patting or rubbing her back (but not too much!), singing to her. Again, this was so she would learn to fall back asleep without the boob.
It's tough, I won't lie, but hubby knew how exhausted and drained I was so he was on board to help out. It took less than 2 weeks and now she sleeps like a dream, 7-7 most nights. She slowly weaned herself from the boob because I started to feed her when she woke up in the morning or after naps. Usually she was so happy to be awake etc, she'd forget to feed! She didn't miss it at all but I did
Hope that helps? Any questions just ask! X