justhat
<font color=teal>DC DISer<br><font color=red>pick
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2002
- Messages
- 7,449
GLT, like Staci I sorta skimmed through the rest of the posts so maybe this was said. I started weaning Madison when she was 13 months too. I wasn't in a huge rush so she wasn't totally weaned till 21 months, but that was my own doing, I could have moved things along faster if I had wanted to.
At 13 months she nursed when she woke up in the morning, before nap and bedtime (we were at 1 nap/day then), during the night, and then maybe once randomly during the day. The first feeding I got rid of was at naptime. It worked out well cause we were in WDW at the time so she'd fall asleep in the stroller for naps everyday and forgot about nursing. That can work at home though by sticking him in a stroller at naptime or any other distraction to get him to nap (the car, whatever).
Once the naptime feeding went away, pretty much any other daytime feeding was gone too (except the 1st thing in the am one), on her own. Then, at the recommendation of her ped, we went to a sleep clinic and they told me that to get her to sleep through the night without nursing then she had to go to bed that way too. So I had to start putting her to bed without nursing her first. That was very tough cause like you my husband is not around much so I had to do it on my own and she knew I had milk available. I tried having him help with bedtime a couple of nights but it was futile so I would do it myself. I just held her and read a book, rocked her, whatever I had to do to get her to sleep. She was just about 16 months when we did this. During the night I'd repeat that, anything to get her back to sleep without nursing her. Those 2 feedings were very rough cause she is so strong-willed that she'd stay up screaming and I admit I gave in a couple of times. But I'd say after a month or so she was going to sleep without nursing and though she still woke up during the night she was going back to sleep without nursing.
The first thing in the morning feeding was the only one left by 18 months and that took 3 months to get rid of, mostly cause of my own laziness. Like Leif, she got up so early and I didn't want to so I let her come in my bed and nurse back to sleep and we'd both get a couple of extra hours of sleep in that way. The way I stopped it was that I started waking up before her and then got dressed and ready for the day before she woke up. Then when she woke up I'd just get her out of bed and play with her for a bit then feed her breakfast. I didn't do this everyday in the beginning though, maybe once a week, then a couple of times a week, etc. till eventually she just didn't ask one morning. Also, doing it this way really depleted my milk supply so on the mornings that she did nurse she didn't get much and would say "more mama" and get sad when I told her there wasn't any more. But I guess not getting much made the days where I didn't nurse her less hard and then she just stopped.
Good luck with it. I know it was really hard and then after it was done I was sad she wasn't nursing anymore. Of course the sadness was short lived cause I found out I was pregnant with Henry a week later and wished I had more time to my own body, but oh well.
At 13 months she nursed when she woke up in the morning, before nap and bedtime (we were at 1 nap/day then), during the night, and then maybe once randomly during the day. The first feeding I got rid of was at naptime. It worked out well cause we were in WDW at the time so she'd fall asleep in the stroller for naps everyday and forgot about nursing. That can work at home though by sticking him in a stroller at naptime or any other distraction to get him to nap (the car, whatever).
Once the naptime feeding went away, pretty much any other daytime feeding was gone too (except the 1st thing in the am one), on her own. Then, at the recommendation of her ped, we went to a sleep clinic and they told me that to get her to sleep through the night without nursing then she had to go to bed that way too. So I had to start putting her to bed without nursing her first. That was very tough cause like you my husband is not around much so I had to do it on my own and she knew I had milk available. I tried having him help with bedtime a couple of nights but it was futile so I would do it myself. I just held her and read a book, rocked her, whatever I had to do to get her to sleep. She was just about 16 months when we did this. During the night I'd repeat that, anything to get her back to sleep without nursing her. Those 2 feedings were very rough cause she is so strong-willed that she'd stay up screaming and I admit I gave in a couple of times. But I'd say after a month or so she was going to sleep without nursing and though she still woke up during the night she was going back to sleep without nursing.
The first thing in the morning feeding was the only one left by 18 months and that took 3 months to get rid of, mostly cause of my own laziness. Like Leif, she got up so early and I didn't want to so I let her come in my bed and nurse back to sleep and we'd both get a couple of extra hours of sleep in that way. The way I stopped it was that I started waking up before her and then got dressed and ready for the day before she woke up. Then when she woke up I'd just get her out of bed and play with her for a bit then feed her breakfast. I didn't do this everyday in the beginning though, maybe once a week, then a couple of times a week, etc. till eventually she just didn't ask one morning. Also, doing it this way really depleted my milk supply so on the mornings that she did nurse she didn't get much and would say "more mama" and get sad when I told her there wasn't any more. But I guess not getting much made the days where I didn't nurse her less hard and then she just stopped.
Good luck with it. I know it was really hard and then after it was done I was sad she wasn't nursing anymore. Of course the sadness was short lived cause I found out I was pregnant with Henry a week later and wished I had more time to my own body, but oh well.
