My soon to be 12 month old has consistently woken every three hours at night to nurse. I have been able to stop nursing during the day but have not been successful at night. I'm so ready for sleep.
Some of this is just miss placed guilt. Would you let your 2 yr old wake you every three hours? No. If your one yr old gets enough nutrition everyday then he doesn't need to nurse every three hours at night.
It's not a need mama, it's a want. He wants you to hold him and nurse him so he can easily go back to sleep. You need consistent sleep.
Your needs, trumps his Wants.
Been there and doing it again! I think the Jay Gordon approach is a little extreme, as in extreme attachment parenting. He made me feel guilty for wanting to night wean, and my first woke every 90 minutes. I kept trying to night wean gently then giving up because I felt guilty. What worked in the end was total weaning. It was a few rough nights, but I dried up and that was that. Try cutting back on one feeding at a time. Btw, I weaned number one at twenty months, but exactly because of that sleep issue, I plan to wean this one after about a year. I'm only human.
Is it just you taking on the role of getting him/her back to sleep at night or do you have a partner to help? If so then I would suggest having your partner start going in to their room and taking on the responsibility of getting the baby down. Its a habit at this point for the baby to keep waking so if YOU are the one that has to go in there its a harder habit to break but if you have someone else that can hug them for a few mins and then soothe them back to sleep then it makes it a bit easier to understand that they don't actually need to be nursed back to sleep! Good Luck
Here is a good link for night weaning. I found it useful.
http://drjaygordon.com/attachment/sleeppattern.html
I am in the same boat. My 13 month old wakes up all night to nurse. I really just think it's a comfort thing with her. So I'm curious to see what kind of answers you get! Hope you start getting some sleep! :)
You might try offering a little water (with a slow-flow nipple or sippie) instead. Some babies will be placated but find it not worth getting you up for in the long run. It helped with my bottle-fed babe, but i have to admit, I nursed on demand still overnight with my younger at that age. It was easier than fighting. :-P
When we weaned my youngest over night, my husband to the week off work and slept in the other room with him. If I were anywhere around when he woke, he would want to nurse. The first night was fine, 2nd and 3rd, not so much. By the 5th, he was weaned overnight.
