Night Weaning

I have no idea how it happened, but I have a 22 month old who is still nursing like a newborn. Big A was very text book in her natural increase of solids and water with a corresponding decrease of breast milk. She slept through the night at 6 weeks (through no help from me, so don't ask for my trick!) and she just weaned herself at around 16 months. I would try to nurse her to sleep and she'd say no thank you.

Little A, not so much. I think in her nearly 2 years on this Earth, her longest stretch of sleep was 5 hours. Lately I've been thinking more and more that she would sleep longer and better if she didn't feel the need to nurse every time she awoke and was instead able to roll over and just try to go back to sleep.

So yesterday we were out shopping and decided to stop at a candy store, owned by an old friend of ours. We stood chatting and catching up and she mentioned how she was still nursing her son who is Little A's age and how she had just night weaned him. She gave me hope! So during dinner we had a long chat about how she could have all the milk she wanted until it was time for bed, but then she'd have to wait until morning. That we weren't going to have any milk in Mummy's bed anymore. She seemed to understand, asked a million times "Why?" but decided it would be alright.

She went to sleep fine and slept until 2. I reminded her about how we weren't going to have milk in Mummy's bed and she snuggled up to me and went back to sleep. For, maybe 5 min. And then that cycle lasted the rest of the night. She had a couple more hour long stretches, but this morning I feel more sleep deprived than I did when they were infants. UGH! But even though I'm a walking zombie today, I do feel like the night was a success and went as well as the first night could go. And I woke up feeling like this is the right thing at the right time. I'm fine that she doesn't want to stop nursing yet, but I also think she's more than old enough to meet me half way and let me sleep through the night, or at least for a good 6 hour stretch. Here's hoping tonight goes MUCH better!