Night Weaning

Our initial round with our sleep training went really quite well for how little effort we ended up putting into it. Our sleep consultant gave us a great step-by-step plan, and we followed it until we felt like we were happy with where we were at, then sort of backed off. Annabelle went from waking up every 45 minutes-an hour and a half, to sleeping at least 4 hours in the first chunk. She also went from nursing to sleep every time she woke up, to not needing to be nursed to sleep. It was challenging at first, but she got the hang of it pretty quickly. For the last 4 or 5 months, this is how our nights have gone (aside from when she's been sick):

7:30--falls asleep cuddling with daddy in her bed, or with me rubbing her head singing softly.
11:30--wake up for the first time, usually goes back to sleep with us rubbing her back or snuggling with her (I rarely ever need to nurse her when she wakes at 11:30).
Between 1:30 and 3:00 --wakes up the second time, throws a FIT if she doesn't get to nurse. At this point I usually bring her to bed with us, and she nurses briefly, and then rolls over and falls asleep.
After this waking, it's a crap shoot. Usually she sleeps until around 5:30, and then between 5:30 and 7:30 she is super restless, waking up a lot, wanting to nurse a lot (only for comfort--rarely more than a minute), and is just overall really annoying to be sharing a bed with.
She usually wakes up for the day between 7 and 8.

So, overall, not horrible. But, she's 16 months old, and we can see we are developing some patterns that we aren't super thrilled with, and we would really like to put an end to. Also, we are very anxious to have another baby (and, if I'm honest, have been for quite a few months!), and with Annabelle's night nursing so much still, it's been biologically not possible for me to be pregnant yet. So, we are on to our next sleeping adventure.

I emailed our sleep consultant again and told her we were ready to hopefully get Annabelle sleeping through the night in her own bed (at least the majority of the night), and are ready to night wean.

I know night weaning is controversial to some--especially those who fall into the Attachment Parenting style of parenting. But, we have talked about it a lot, and know that Annabelle is physically ready, so we're going for it. (Thanks for your support :) )

We got our sleep plan before Christmas, but since we were going to be traveling a lot between then and New Year's, we wanted to wait until today to start. It's good we waited, since Annabelle was pretty sick last week and was up all night for a couple of nights.

The plan is for us to do our routine, put Annabelle in her bed as usual, and then go sit by her door, without interacting with her. If she comes over to us, we put her back in bed, say the same thing each time (It's night-night time, Annabelle. I love you. night night.) and then resume our post by the door. She needs to fall asleep completely by herself. If she wakes up during the night, it's the same process.

As far as the night weaning goes, tonight she is not allowed to nurse until 3:30 a.m. If she wakes up after that and wants to nurse, she can. Tomorrow night we move that to 4. Then 4:30, then 5, then 5:30, etc.. until she goes the whole night without nursing. We need to teach her body that she can go longer without needing milk. I know that she gets hungry around 3:30 or 4 because I can hear her tummy grumbling sometimes. But, at some point she needs to know that it's okay to be a little bit hungry, because she can eat in the morning. I'm okay with that. So, ideally, it should take 8 days until she goes the whole night without nursing. The idea is that once she realizes she doesn't need to nurse, and that she can go to sleep by herself each time, she will stop waking up.

Tonight went fabulously at bedtime. We did our routine, she nursed, then I laid her down and said goodnight. She came over to me about 10 times, and each time I walked her back to bed, said goodnight again, and resumed my post by her door. She eventually fell asleep on her own, with zero crying or fussing. I hope the rest of the night goes just as well! I can't believe that in 8 days (hopefully) I will no longer be nursing my baby at night! It's bittersweet--but mostly sweet ;)