Water for Middle of Night Weaning?

Breastfeeding and formula feeding are different both in substance and in delivery so that has to be taken into consideration when sifting through suggestions.
Giving water at the 2am feeding means that you are still having to get a bottle of water and sit up and give it to your baby who is likely going to fight it because she really wants to nurse and go back to sleep. If she did wake because she is hungary at that time, water has no calories she will likely wake up an hour or so later. Babies wake during the night for all sorts of reasons not just because they are hungary. She is growing, teething, starting to hit some developmental milestones. It is completely normal for her wake the amount that she is. One of the great benefits of nursing is that you have the easiest, most convenient remedy for nighttime baby issues in the world and its worth taking advantage of.
It.s ok to take whatever appoach is easiest and gets you and your baby the most sleep. This may very well mean that you cosleep for part of the night. Lots of moms do this even if they don't admit it. Don't worry about her being in the bed for part of the night, she will not be in there forever. If it gets you through these next few months of teething and growing so be it. It is so easy to just snuggle in together, nurse and go right back to sleep especially when the nights are chilly. Just because you take her into your bed for part of the night doesn't mean that you still can't work on gently encouraging her sleep in her own space when you have more energy.
Breastfed babies around your daughters age tend to get distracted easily when nursing so try to make sure that she is getting some really good nursing during the day and especially in those last couple of hours before bedtime. This may help to decrease some nightwaking. Your breastmilk has more calories and nutrition than the solids that she is getting at this point.
It is tough to have a baby waking several times a night (I have a 7month old who is also breastfed) and it has always been helpful to me to read breastfeeding friendly books that also talk about normal baby behavior, needs, and development. Maybe check out "The Baby Sleep Book" by Dr. Sears or "No Cry Baby Sleep Solution"
Good luck!

I would wait a few months to do this with a breastfed baby because she is still very dependent on getting fed around the clock for her growth. I think most books say to start night weaning around 9-12 months when babies are getting a lot of nutrition from solids as well. If your child was formula fed, I think that it might be a different situation, but breast milk digests much faster, and there are fewer ounces at each feeding. I wouldn't stress too much that she sleeps a few hours with you at night sometimes, she is so little...it will pass!

I found that during these dry winter months my boys seems to wake up looking for a drink. They are now 18 months and 6yrs I leave each of them water so I see nothing wrong with offering your little girl water at that 2am feeding. I'm not a huge fan of the cry it out method but if it will work for you go for it. She may just need to suck on something how long is she nursing for? If she's not nursing long try a binky. I fell asleep nursing my youngest many many times. There is nothing wrong with co sleeping with your little girl atleast you are getting sleep which is very important. good luck.

I agree with Danica. 5 months is really young to start weaning a breastfed baby. And you may find that the water is just going to make it worse. It won't be what she wants so she'll wake up even more thoroughly and be more ticked off.

What about moving her into your room? I know you said you don't want to cosleep, so what about putting a pack n play right next to your bed? You could pick her up, nurse her, and put her back in the pack n play, it'll be a lot less miserable than running down to the baby's room when she starts screaming. Also, you're likely to hear her before she gets really upset (you know, those first few mmmmmmmssss that say 'i'm hungry, mama!' and you can quickly nurse her before she even really wakes up)

Why would her falling asleep in your bed till the next feeding, and then going back to her crib be so bad? She'd be where she needed to be for eating, and where YOU needed her to be for sleep. :) 5 months is really too young for water, and esp. for overnight weaning. Good Luck!

This is what I did to make my son's stomach used to not getting the calories. Say he was getting 8 ounces of formula. At first I kept the 8 ounces but only put in 3 scoops of formula instead of 4. Did that for say 2 nights, then decreased again to say 6 ounces and 2 1/2 scoops instead of 3. Then take out 1/2 scoop and decrease to 5 ounces and so forth. Took maybe 1-2 weeks. He still woke up but at the end I was practically just giving him water so I felt that he wasn't REALLY hungry. I went down to 2-3 ounces in the bottle. At this point I think maybe I did the Ferber method but it was gradual so it wasn't that bad. It is so tough when they share roooms at this point. My 2 boys did as well but when my older son woke up I let him go into my room and sleep until my youngest went back to sleep.

I used small amounts of water when my son was older ... around 7-8 months. He would just take a few sips and fall back to sleep, but really didn't need it. Looking back I should have just let him cry himself back to sleep because he hasn't learned yet how to sooth himself back to sleep he was relying on me. After 10 and a half months I no longer went to him every time I heard him and he learned how to go to sleep on his own. Good luck. the cry it out method works wonders and wished i had done it earlier. It was hard at first but was much easier than i thought it was going to be. He has been sleeping 12 hours since he was 11 months old. Could have slept longer earlier but we co-slept (until weaned) and I was waking up with him every time he woke up. There were many sleepness nights for the both of us.