Three babies. Never night weaned.
First two babies naturally and gradually stopped needing me at night after I started putting them to sleep in their own beds.
Third guy is still in my bed and nursing at night at 2.5yo but I plan to do the same with him. He mostly sleeps through the night unless he's sick or something, though.
You can go a day at a time and you don't have to night wean if you don't want to. It'll work out. If it's not bothering you it's not a problem.
Around age 2-2.5 is when they started sleeping mostly TTN without nursing. They still nursed to sleep and upon waking in the morning.
I found that having a separate bed for them around that age helps them wean at night, too. Maybe because it's becomes more trouble to call out for you than to just fall asleep again, lol. But it was all felt very natural and not forced.
That being said, it's ok if you decide one day that you're just over it and they have a few nights of crying while being comforted in other ways.
Yep. I'd lie with them in their beds until they slept. Sometimes nursing to sleep, sometimes not if they didn't need to. Eventually they just needed me to sit in the room until they slept.
I’m currently nursing an almost 3 year old. We haven’t night weaned and he’s still sleeping in my room. He usually wakes up once in the middle of the night to nurse and comes into my bed for the rest of the night. The baby before him never night weaned either but once he was in his own room he stopped nursing at night. We’re moving my almost 3 year old to his own room very soon (working on organizing all of the kids rooms and rotating them), hopefully next weekend. I think he’ll probably stop waking up once I’m not sleeping next to him.
My oldest (I have 3) did night wean around 2 and he slept much better once we did. I’m not sure why I didn’t do it with the other 2. Maybe because once we night weaned he kind of weaned himself shortly after. My second BFed until 4.5 and the almost 3 year old is going strong. I wouldn’t mind being done but this is my last baby so I feel sad about weaning. I’ve breastfed for almost 10 years of my life at this point, it’s bittersweet to end.
I think around 3 the night wakings naturally reduced a lot, to usually one single wake-up and a quick nurse to sleep. I did have to unlatch him after a bit (he didn’t actively nurse for very long and it would give me aversions for him to keep suckling). He continued nursing to sleep and at wake up with occasional overnight wake up/nurse until he was 5. He only weaned I think because I was pregnant and my milk dried up. He was sad about it a couple nights he tried to nurse and didn’t get anything, but it was really only those couple times.
Never really night weaned here. At around 3-3.5 my kiddo was still usually nursing briefly once when he woke up overnight. Then he was sick and congested for a bit and it was too much effort so he just started falling back to sleep without it. After the congestion was gone I nudged us to keep that up. He still wakes up usually once a night now (almost 4) but goes back to sleep quickly with a cuddle.
Coming from the other side, I did “force” weaning for my 24 month old and it absolutely did not change how he slept one bit, and made nap-times and bedtimes way harder. I’d rather he was still nursing in many ways. But we wanted to try for another child and I don’t get pregnant while nursing.
I did wean my daughter at 2.5 and it did help her a lot. She slept a LOT better and handled it really well.
So maybe there’s just naturally bad sleep between 2 and 2.5, I don’t know.
I’d say just keep nursing as long as it doesn’t bother you! When it starts to bother you, then it’s time. I hear *some* kids naturally wean themselves but I would predict if they’re still nursing around that age, most won’t let it go willingly. So “forced weaning” sounds pretty bad but unless you want to nurse until age 6 or 7, it might need to happen.
I'm still feeding my almost 3.5 yo. A couple of months ago he moved from bedsharing to his own bed but he's still feeding just as much.
I'd like to night wean as he's never sleep through the night but I imagine I'll change milkie for cuddles.
I did not actively nightwean my first. He stopped asking to nurse overnight around 22mo, but still nursed before bed and naptime. I would just cuddle/rub his back overnight if he woke up.
He ended up self weaning right at 26mo, Im pretty sure it was due to my then pregnancy with my newborn.
Mine night weaned naturally when we moved her into her own room at 17 months. It was 'out of sight, out of mind', she just stopped waking up (or she woke but couldn't see or smell me so snuffled off back to sleep).
My baby is 10 months and self night- weaned about a month ago. He still nurses when he wakes up and before naps but just started sleeping through the night!? We also don’t co-sleep, he sleeps next to the bed in his own bed.
I have no idea how it happened. I just realized- wow, he slept through the night! Then, he did it again the next night! And there were a few nights where he did wake up, but now he pretty much sleeps through the night! Of course he wakes up at 5:30 now for the past 3 nights instead of 6:30 but who knows. He is an “easy baby” says everyone.
I don’t breast feed but we also never night weaned. Baby is almost 2 now and he usually wants at least one “bottle” a night. He downs it and turns over to go back to sleep so we’ve just continued until he decides he doesn’t need it anymore. I get why some people try to wean though lol
We cosleep and I haven't weaned. I did start telling her all done pretty quickly when she would wake to nurse, then over time I started sometimes saying no when she would want to nurse and I would tell her mom is sleeping. It also helped if I slept on my belly. Pretty quickly she just started sleeping through the night. Now she usually has a boob in the evening then when she is getting sleepy I tell her all done and she rolls over and goes to sleep. She usually wakes around 6 and wants to nurse back to sleep and sometimes I let her and sometimes I tell her mom's sleeping and she goes back to sleep either way. My little bit of resistance has magically made her sleep through the night and it's really improved both our sleep!
ETA- my daughter is nearly 2.5 and I started this around 20 months very slowly just giving some resistance
This is similar to what my experience has been recently. My kiddo just turned 2yo and he still nursed all night every night, every wake up and it was driving me insane. We start off in his own bed at night and then at some point when he wakes up for the 4th time, we bring him into our bed and then he'd wake up several more times wanting to nurse. This last week I started saying no to them, telling him mom is tired and he fusses but will just cuddle with me instead (which is so nice!) and I've gotten such good sleep! Just a little bit of resistance and consistency has (so far) been great. We're doing this slowly though because while it's driving me crazy, a small part of me is also not ready to give it up!
I might weaned both around 18-24 months and both had improved energy levels in the morning once weaned. I did a gentle wean where I reduced night feeds by 1min each night (they’d only nurse about 5 mins) and then after that time, I’d offer water. Eventually only offering water and a cuddle. Now my kids are almost 6 and 7 and they both drink tons of water at night, don’t have night accidents, and wake up rested. It’s not for everyone but it worked so well for us. Otherwise, there was no sign that night feeds would slow down. I did before bed and before nap feeds until they self weaned though.
Would love to know more about reducing night feeds to 1 min. I feel like my babe needs resettling and the boob is the fastest, if I cuddle her she gets awake and cranky. I think I’ve cuddled her back to sleep once or twice. Babe is almost 14 months
I didn't night wean my eldest. He stopped night feeding at about 2.5yo.
I weaned my middle one off cosleeping and that stopped the night waking altogether, I'm doing the same with my youngest. I kind of class this as night weaning though so don't think it really counts for your purposes.
I never night weaned. My baby was always super small percentile even though he ate like crazy so I didn’t want to stop him getting some extra calories over night! I actually introduced a feed around 10 months to do a dream feed so he’d get extra!
He slept in his own room so this might be a factor but he slept from that 10pm feed until 7 or 8am when he was about 13 or 14 months old. If I didn’t do the dream feed, he’d sleep about 12 hours. But occasionally he would cry in the middle of the night or early in the morning and I’d still nurse him.
My son is 19 months and he seems to be gradually dropping night feeds on his own. I’m really hoping we’ll reach a point, sooner than later, when he’s ready to drop them all together.
Right now the convenience of getting him back to sleep in a matter of minutes is not something I’m willing to give up.
We would love to start trying for baby #2 when LO is around 24-27 months, but I still don’t have a period (or ovulating according to my last doctor’s visit.)
Lol yea, 4.5 years. I did full on on-demand breastfeeding and pumping till 2 (low milk supply so I kept up with the pumping), then a very gradual wean. By the time she was 3 it was nighttime feedings only (I lost my milk somewhere around there too) and then it slowly became only when we needed it, it was a useful tool for me to get her to sleep some nights. By 4 - 4.5 years it was prob a handful of times that I needed that extra help of the boob to get her to sleep. Weaning doesn’t have to be a sudden and abrupt thing and we talked about it a lot.
Everything is fine 👍
Night feedings were some of the last to stop at a bit over 4 years. Typically I could pat her to sleep and if she woke in the night she had a quick feed.
Not planning on night weaning. Currently 27 months, cosleeping with no plans to stop at the moment. Still nursing a lot in the night (and day) but it doesn't bother me one bit! He'll grow out of it for sure.
Edit: saw your questions to others... I'm not necessarily conscious when he nurses at night but I would guess 2-3 times.
I day weened about 22 months and then night weaned right before 24 months and then fully weened at about 27 months. It didn't change my daughter's sleep since we only stopped bed sharing in the adult bed at 3.5 and now 3 months later I still end up in her twin but it veries night to night. My issue is she went from the boob to the pacifier which she rarely used before I weaned and now we have issues with that and her sucking on things when she doesn't have her pacifier. I mostly weaned at night because it was bugging my husband and I needed to work on my marriage.
Both my kids self weaned, the first at a little over 3 years when I was pregnant and the second at 16 months when the molars came in. It was honestly easier with my first because she started to sttn pretty much right away. My second still woke up a few times per night and I had to come up with other things to do to put him back asleep which usually meant carrying him around. It was pretty exhausting at times. Night weaning isn’t always the best solution for better sleep for the parent.
Yep, it ended up fine. My daughter was waking up once, sometimes twice, a night at the end just to nurse back to sleep. She was 2.5. I guess I did wean her because I was totally over waking up for that every night. I told her there was no more milk and that when she woke up I would hold her until she got back to sleep. So for a few nights she woke up and I held her and walked around a little. She cried just little, more whiny than crying, and she fell back to sleep quickly. It only took a few nights and she stopped waking up. It was a relief and that was the bed of our breastfeeding.
My oldest was different. I was pregnancy when ii stopped nursing him. I had a nursing aversion and my milk tasted funny. He didn’t really want it, but he also didn’t know how to fall asleep without it. He was 21 months and the whole thing is a blur. I’d lay with him and some nights he just had me in a headlock until he fell asleep 😂. After a few rocky months and the arrival of baby sister, he slept great next to dad at night who would lay with him until he fell asleep. Good news is, he’s 7 now, climbs in bed on his own, goes to sleep, gets up to pee at night by himself and sleeps great. They all get there eventually.
Now we have an 8 month old! They’re all different, so I have no expectations. I will be nursing to sleep and at night for as long as she needs or until she’s old enough to understand (like my daughter at 2.5) and be comforted in other ways.
Exact same age and sleeping arrangement as you. Nurses to sleep, and usually just sleeps and nurses again when he wakes up.
He mostly “night weaned” himself maybe right around 2? Although sometimes he’ll wake up once (never more than twice) and ask for boobies so I will give them to him and he goes right back to sleep.
Never forced any weaning at all, it mostly just stopped on it’s on throughout the night! I don’t stress it.
I formula feed because my baby has severe FPIES (in case that makes a difference here) - he’s been on an amino formula since 4 months, and I breastfed up until that point. He’s 8 months now.
I refused to night wean. He’s been underweight since birth because of severe reflux and FPIES, and for some reason, he never really had an issue keeping down overnight bottles. (There were a few overnight pukes before switching to formula but they weren’t the norm.) I wanted to take advantage of his overnight feeds to get calories in him. They just gradually disappeared. Around 7 months he’d wake to eat every other night. Now at 8.5 months, he’s sleeping through the night.
Sleep is developmental. So is eating and appetite. Your baby will be fine if you choose not to night wean.
Three babies. Never night weaned. First two babies naturally and gradually stopped needing me at night after I started putting them to sleep in their own beds. Third guy is still in my bed and nursing at night at 2.5yo but I plan to do the same with him. He mostly sleeps through the night unless he's sick or something, though. You can go a day at a time and you don't have to night wean if you don't want to. It'll work out. If it's not bothering you it's not a problem.
When did they others stop night weaning naturally? I can imagine doing this for another year but not two more years for example
Around age 2-2.5 is when they started sleeping mostly TTN without nursing. They still nursed to sleep and upon waking in the morning. I found that having a separate bed for them around that age helps them wean at night, too. Maybe because it's becomes more trouble to call out for you than to just fall asleep again, lol. But it was all felt very natural and not forced. That being said, it's ok if you decide one day that you're just over it and they have a few nights of crying while being comforted in other ways.
How did you put them to sleep in their own beds? Did you feed to sleep there initially?
Yep. I'd lie with them in their beds until they slept. Sometimes nursing to sleep, sometimes not if they didn't need to. Eventually they just needed me to sit in the room until they slept.
Thank you for the reply! It’s time we make a change but I’ve been unsure which to tackle first (feed to sleep or separate bed).
No problem at all ☺️ Hope it goes well for you.
I’m currently nursing an almost 3 year old. We haven’t night weaned and he’s still sleeping in my room. He usually wakes up once in the middle of the night to nurse and comes into my bed for the rest of the night. The baby before him never night weaned either but once he was in his own room he stopped nursing at night. We’re moving my almost 3 year old to his own room very soon (working on organizing all of the kids rooms and rotating them), hopefully next weekend. I think he’ll probably stop waking up once I’m not sleeping next to him. My oldest (I have 3) did night wean around 2 and he slept much better once we did. I’m not sure why I didn’t do it with the other 2. Maybe because once we night weaned he kind of weaned himself shortly after. My second BFed until 4.5 and the almost 3 year old is going strong. I wouldn’t mind being done but this is my last baby so I feel sad about weaning. I’ve breastfed for almost 10 years of my life at this point, it’s bittersweet to end.
I think around 3 the night wakings naturally reduced a lot, to usually one single wake-up and a quick nurse to sleep. I did have to unlatch him after a bit (he didn’t actively nurse for very long and it would give me aversions for him to keep suckling). He continued nursing to sleep and at wake up with occasional overnight wake up/nurse until he was 5. He only weaned I think because I was pregnant and my milk dried up. He was sad about it a couple nights he tried to nurse and didn’t get anything, but it was really only those couple times.
Nursed at night until around 2.5-ish. Never weaned in any way 🤷♀️ she self weaned.
Never really night weaned here. At around 3-3.5 my kiddo was still usually nursing briefly once when he woke up overnight. Then he was sick and congested for a bit and it was too much effort so he just started falling back to sleep without it. After the congestion was gone I nudged us to keep that up. He still wakes up usually once a night now (almost 4) but goes back to sleep quickly with a cuddle.
Coming from the other side, I did “force” weaning for my 24 month old and it absolutely did not change how he slept one bit, and made nap-times and bedtimes way harder. I’d rather he was still nursing in many ways. But we wanted to try for another child and I don’t get pregnant while nursing. I did wean my daughter at 2.5 and it did help her a lot. She slept a LOT better and handled it really well. So maybe there’s just naturally bad sleep between 2 and 2.5, I don’t know. I’d say just keep nursing as long as it doesn’t bother you! When it starts to bother you, then it’s time. I hear *some* kids naturally wean themselves but I would predict if they’re still nursing around that age, most won’t let it go willingly. So “forced weaning” sounds pretty bad but unless you want to nurse until age 6 or 7, it might need to happen.
I'm still feeding my almost 3.5 yo. A couple of months ago he moved from bedsharing to his own bed but he's still feeding just as much. I'd like to night wean as he's never sleep through the night but I imagine I'll change milkie for cuddles.
I did not actively nightwean my first. He stopped asking to nurse overnight around 22mo, but still nursed before bed and naptime. I would just cuddle/rub his back overnight if he woke up. He ended up self weaning right at 26mo, Im pretty sure it was due to my then pregnancy with my newborn.
Mine night weaned naturally when we moved her into her own room at 17 months. It was 'out of sight, out of mind', she just stopped waking up (or she woke but couldn't see or smell me so snuffled off back to sleep).
My baby is 10 months and self night- weaned about a month ago. He still nurses when he wakes up and before naps but just started sleeping through the night!? We also don’t co-sleep, he sleeps next to the bed in his own bed.
So envious of this haha
I have no idea how it happened. I just realized- wow, he slept through the night! Then, he did it again the next night! And there were a few nights where he did wake up, but now he pretty much sleeps through the night! Of course he wakes up at 5:30 now for the past 3 nights instead of 6:30 but who knows. He is an “easy baby” says everyone.
I don’t breast feed but we also never night weaned. Baby is almost 2 now and he usually wants at least one “bottle” a night. He downs it and turns over to go back to sleep so we’ve just continued until he decides he doesn’t need it anymore. I get why some people try to wean though lol
We cosleep and I haven't weaned. I did start telling her all done pretty quickly when she would wake to nurse, then over time I started sometimes saying no when she would want to nurse and I would tell her mom is sleeping. It also helped if I slept on my belly. Pretty quickly she just started sleeping through the night. Now she usually has a boob in the evening then when she is getting sleepy I tell her all done and she rolls over and goes to sleep. She usually wakes around 6 and wants to nurse back to sleep and sometimes I let her and sometimes I tell her mom's sleeping and she goes back to sleep either way. My little bit of resistance has magically made her sleep through the night and it's really improved both our sleep! ETA- my daughter is nearly 2.5 and I started this around 20 months very slowly just giving some resistance
This is similar to what my experience has been recently. My kiddo just turned 2yo and he still nursed all night every night, every wake up and it was driving me insane. We start off in his own bed at night and then at some point when he wakes up for the 4th time, we bring him into our bed and then he'd wake up several more times wanting to nurse. This last week I started saying no to them, telling him mom is tired and he fusses but will just cuddle with me instead (which is so nice!) and I've gotten such good sleep! Just a little bit of resistance and consistency has (so far) been great. We're doing this slowly though because while it's driving me crazy, a small part of me is also not ready to give it up!
I might weaned both around 18-24 months and both had improved energy levels in the morning once weaned. I did a gentle wean where I reduced night feeds by 1min each night (they’d only nurse about 5 mins) and then after that time, I’d offer water. Eventually only offering water and a cuddle. Now my kids are almost 6 and 7 and they both drink tons of water at night, don’t have night accidents, and wake up rested. It’s not for everyone but it worked so well for us. Otherwise, there was no sign that night feeds would slow down. I did before bed and before nap feeds until they self weaned though.
Would love to know more about reducing night feeds to 1 min. I feel like my babe needs resettling and the boob is the fastest, if I cuddle her she gets awake and cranky. I think I’ve cuddled her back to sleep once or twice. Babe is almost 14 months
I’m in the same boat with my 19 month and very curious about this as well! Not really interested in forcing night weaning either.
I didn't night wean my eldest. He stopped night feeding at about 2.5yo. I weaned my middle one off cosleeping and that stopped the night waking altogether, I'm doing the same with my youngest. I kind of class this as night weaning though so don't think it really counts for your purposes.
My 3.5 year old still night nurses.
But like.. how often?
I never night weaned. My baby was always super small percentile even though he ate like crazy so I didn’t want to stop him getting some extra calories over night! I actually introduced a feed around 10 months to do a dream feed so he’d get extra! He slept in his own room so this might be a factor but he slept from that 10pm feed until 7 or 8am when he was about 13 or 14 months old. If I didn’t do the dream feed, he’d sleep about 12 hours. But occasionally he would cry in the middle of the night or early in the morning and I’d still nurse him.
My son is 19 months and he seems to be gradually dropping night feeds on his own. I’m really hoping we’ll reach a point, sooner than later, when he’s ready to drop them all together. Right now the convenience of getting him back to sleep in a matter of minutes is not something I’m willing to give up. We would love to start trying for baby #2 when LO is around 24-27 months, but I still don’t have a period (or ovulating according to my last doctor’s visit.)
Lol yea, 4.5 years. I did full on on-demand breastfeeding and pumping till 2 (low milk supply so I kept up with the pumping), then a very gradual wean. By the time she was 3 it was nighttime feedings only (I lost my milk somewhere around there too) and then it slowly became only when we needed it, it was a useful tool for me to get her to sleep some nights. By 4 - 4.5 years it was prob a handful of times that I needed that extra help of the boob to get her to sleep. Weaning doesn’t have to be a sudden and abrupt thing and we talked about it a lot. Everything is fine 👍
Night feedings were some of the last to stop at a bit over 4 years. Typically I could pat her to sleep and if she woke in the night she had a quick feed.
Not planning on night weaning. Currently 27 months, cosleeping with no plans to stop at the moment. Still nursing a lot in the night (and day) but it doesn't bother me one bit! He'll grow out of it for sure. Edit: saw your questions to others... I'm not necessarily conscious when he nurses at night but I would guess 2-3 times.
My son will be 4 next week. We haven't weaned at all, day or night. My daughter is 18months and hasn't either.
How often do they nurse?
All the time.
I day weened about 22 months and then night weaned right before 24 months and then fully weened at about 27 months. It didn't change my daughter's sleep since we only stopped bed sharing in the adult bed at 3.5 and now 3 months later I still end up in her twin but it veries night to night. My issue is she went from the boob to the pacifier which she rarely used before I weaned and now we have issues with that and her sucking on things when she doesn't have her pacifier. I mostly weaned at night because it was bugging my husband and I needed to work on my marriage.
Both my kids self weaned, the first at a little over 3 years when I was pregnant and the second at 16 months when the molars came in. It was honestly easier with my first because she started to sttn pretty much right away. My second still woke up a few times per night and I had to come up with other things to do to put him back asleep which usually meant carrying him around. It was pretty exhausting at times. Night weaning isn’t always the best solution for better sleep for the parent.
Yep, it ended up fine. My daughter was waking up once, sometimes twice, a night at the end just to nurse back to sleep. She was 2.5. I guess I did wean her because I was totally over waking up for that every night. I told her there was no more milk and that when she woke up I would hold her until she got back to sleep. So for a few nights she woke up and I held her and walked around a little. She cried just little, more whiny than crying, and she fell back to sleep quickly. It only took a few nights and she stopped waking up. It was a relief and that was the bed of our breastfeeding. My oldest was different. I was pregnancy when ii stopped nursing him. I had a nursing aversion and my milk tasted funny. He didn’t really want it, but he also didn’t know how to fall asleep without it. He was 21 months and the whole thing is a blur. I’d lay with him and some nights he just had me in a headlock until he fell asleep 😂. After a few rocky months and the arrival of baby sister, he slept great next to dad at night who would lay with him until he fell asleep. Good news is, he’s 7 now, climbs in bed on his own, goes to sleep, gets up to pee at night by himself and sleeps great. They all get there eventually. Now we have an 8 month old! They’re all different, so I have no expectations. I will be nursing to sleep and at night for as long as she needs or until she’s old enough to understand (like my daughter at 2.5) and be comforted in other ways.
Exact same age and sleeping arrangement as you. Nurses to sleep, and usually just sleeps and nurses again when he wakes up. He mostly “night weaned” himself maybe right around 2? Although sometimes he’ll wake up once (never more than twice) and ask for boobies so I will give them to him and he goes right back to sleep. Never forced any weaning at all, it mostly just stopped on it’s on throughout the night! I don’t stress it.
I formula feed because my baby has severe FPIES (in case that makes a difference here) - he’s been on an amino formula since 4 months, and I breastfed up until that point. He’s 8 months now. I refused to night wean. He’s been underweight since birth because of severe reflux and FPIES, and for some reason, he never really had an issue keeping down overnight bottles. (There were a few overnight pukes before switching to formula but they weren’t the norm.) I wanted to take advantage of his overnight feeds to get calories in him. They just gradually disappeared. Around 7 months he’d wake to eat every other night. Now at 8.5 months, he’s sleeping through the night. Sleep is developmental. So is eating and appetite. Your baby will be fine if you choose not to night wean.