SLEEP~ Night Weaning

i know nothing about jay gordons night weaning.
my son stopped nursing so much at night between 15-17 months! its not that much longer for you, and it really helped my son to be able to grow into his sleep habits on his own! he still sleeps in our room in his crib, and sometimes still sleeps in our bed with us. not often at all, but times when hes sick, or has a nightmare/night terror.

im assuming if you have a family bed, you have night nursed and just gone back to sleep? this is what worked best for me, i would just latch him on and we would all go right back to sleep. the less you can use lights, the less you talk, the easier it will be to transition back to sleep! :D

good luck. its exhausting, but i wouldnt trade one sleepless night for anything in the world!

I've never heard of Dr. Jay Gordon's method before so I'm not sure what it is.

BUT our son was doing the exact same thing as yours. He'd do really good for a week or two and then he would nurse non-stop for a couple weeks... I was getting drained. But I kept it up till he was 18 months before I couldn't take it anymore.

We also co-sleep (husband, myself, almost 4 year old daughter and 20 month old son.) Finally I cut him down to like 1 time a day--he still nursed however much he wanted at night-- before I cut him off totally (at night and day.)

What worked best for me was I brought a SPILL-PROOF cup of WATER to bed with us and when he would ask to nurse (meaning try to pull my shirt up--LOL--) I would hand him the cup and tell him to come snuggle with mommy. He would climb on my tummy and hold his cup. Sometimes he was a little more persistant but I did not give in and nurse because I did not want to go back to multiple times a night.

Now at 20 months his cup has become his "security blanket" but that doesn't bother us. He ONLY gets WATER in it. He did have a bear for a couple months but has pretty much switched over to just the cup now.

So, what you need to do is try to replace nursing with something else. Give him a bear and snuggle or a cup and then snuggle. Pretty soon he'll be sleeping through the night!!! It only took our son about a week TOPS. Good luck.

I have never tried any "methods". What I do know is that every child is different. My oldest was as what yours seems to be. As soon as I put him in his own bed though he slept through the night and has never really wanted in my bed again. He just sleeps better by himself. Occasionally he will ask that he can sleep in bed with me if he wakes very early and I let him. My second son however still sleeps with me but sleeps better in my bed than out of it. But he didn't have the problem of waking often. Point being=maybe your child is a light sleeper and would do better on his own. You could even keep him in your room just on the other side or something.

Hi K.,

I used it on my son (can't remember his exact age at the time - 16 months??), and it worked well. I've recommended it to others, in fact.... If I remember, there are three steps, right? I think we did the first two, and he was good after that.

Good luck - and don't worry, the sleep will come soon! :)

I might have mentioned this before on this board. But, we used vinegar and it worked like a charm. My boys were 15 months and 22 months when I weaned them from nursing. I just dabbed a little vinegar on myself before they wanted to nurse. Right away they got the hint. Good luck!

I don't know the Gordon method. my son was waking every 2 hours to nurse and it was no longer for food but habit. So at one year I simply cut him off at night. I slept in his room one night and next door the next. By the third night he slept right on through with no waking. I think I did a modfied "no cry sleep solution". He cried and whimpered a bit but overall it wasn't as traumatic for either of us as I had expected.