Weaning Wednesdays: Our journey through night weaning

Junior J's bear bear, in his new bed...

I've mentioned the little boy was still getting up in the middle of the night for feeds, yes, at the grand old age of 26 months.  I know, I know.  Many kids this age would have already been sleeping through the night, and sleeping on their own, so we do get odd looks sometimes when people hear that Junior J was still co-sleeping, and still having night feeds (If your kid is still co-sleeping and/or feeding at night, please wave, and leave a comment ok?  It'll be nice to know whether I'm well and truly alone here!).

The co-sleeping initially started because it was just way easier to feed the boy (who used to wake up every 2 hours like clockwork to feed).  I could just roll over, feed him, and then go back to sleep, sometimes without really even waking up at all.  Little boy was rather colicky and had reflux, so the small, frequent feeds had to continue, and hence, for the sake of sleep, the co-sleeping went on.

Then Junior J got older, but he was an extremely fussy eater, and getting him to drink formula/cow's milk during the day was such a pain that I let the night feeds continue, in the hope that they would help to supplement some calories.  I was reluctant to drop the feeds since the boy wasn't eating and wasn't growing well (right now, he's still a really petite and small fellow for his age, and right at the very extreme end of the percentile chart).

But now that he's eating way better, we recently decided it was time to drop those feeds, and train him to sleep on his own in his room.  Instead of doing both at the same time (ie leave him alone in his room, plus not feed him at night), I thought I'd do it step by step for sanity's sake (he wakes up more frequently if he's left alone, so the first thing was to get him used to the idea that "big boys don't drink milk at night")... so the night-weaning started last week, and we've shifted him to his room, but little boy and I have been still co-sleeping.

The first three nights were terrible.  I basically refused to feed him (since I thought it would be best to be consistent and offer NO feeds at all), and patted and sang him back to sleep when he cried.  He would wake about 3 times a night, and would have at least one major meltdown, crying off and on for about half an hour to 45 minutes.  I spent every opportunity in the day explaining to him that "big boys don't need to feed at night when you can see the stars on the ceiling" (co-incidentally, the cardboard with the star cut-out that I had used to cover the small window let light in at night, and a patch of light in the shape of a star would be visible on the ceiling above the bed).  While I was zombified in the day due to the lack of sleep, little boy was perfectly normal in the morning, so I took it that he was getting used to it (One guideline I read to see if the child is ready for night-weaning was to see his/her behaviour in the day.).

For the past few nights, Junior J has been waking up for about two to three times, but there have not been any major meltdowns.  Sometimes there is a little crying, but he settles quickly after one or two songs.  I do ask to see if he's thirsty or hungry, and give him water if he wants it, and he gets plenty of praise in the morning for being able to sleep without getting feeds. :)  So thankfully, things are getting better, and I'm hoping to train him to sleep on his own starting from next week, and we've already been trying to explain to him that he's a big boy that not only doesn't need to feed, but can sleep on his own while his special star from God watches over him. ;) We've hit one roadblock though...  he's started sprouting molars a few days back (sigh), but I guess slow and steady does it!

Oh, and I found this article on night-weaning particularly useful, for its balanced view and gradual approach (plus it was written more towards weaning a toddler rather than sleep-training a baby).  Not sure if it'll help any mums out there...  But whatever the case, there seem to be many methods to encourage babies to night-wean, do go with your gut feel and don't feel pressured to use this or that method, just because others insist that it works.  There's no one-size fits all in this case!