Peaceful and Successful Night Weaning
How a loving story about growing up helped us night wean.
I was very fortunate that both of my boys nursed well from day one, and we had minimal problems. My oldest nursed until 16 months, and my youngest nursed until he was 2. At those ages, the boys had both self-weaned their daytime nursing sessions (with the help of a few distractions here and there), and I was also emotionally ready to move on to the next phase of our relationship. However, both of them were pretty tied to their middle of the night nursing/cuddle sessions with Mama. I didn’t want to get rid of the cuddle sessions, but we both seemed ready to stop nursing.
I was scared. I didn’t want to have a screaming, sad, inconsolable toddler on my hands in the middle of the night. I knew I would cave and go ahead and nurse so everyone could get some rest. So, to try and prepare for this scenario I decided to make a Plan it Out story about how things were changing, why they were changing, and what we could do instead of nurse. For my youngest’s story, I focused on how much he had grown, all the great things he was doing (including drinking from a cup) and how much I loved snuggling with him. In the story, I let him know that he could have his pacifier or some water and snuggle with mama, but there was no more “mama milk” at night.
It was good for me to write out the plan. Even though I was ready, it was an emotional decision and by writing it out I had the plan in the front of my brain and I was ready to go. I read the story to him several times the day we chose to officially night wean. He loved the story! He wanted it read several times throughout the day. He called it “My story,” since it had his picture all over it. I even read it to him as his last story at bedtime. Bedtime went great! He asked for “mama milk” a couple times, but I reminded him of the story (using the same short phrases) and offered him his paci and water. It took him longer to fall asleep, but he did finally fall asleep. The first time he woke up in the middle of the night, I’ll be honest, he was not a very happy camper. I offered him his paci and had it thrown at me! But, I kept calmly and lovingly repeating the phrases from the story and snuggled up with him. After a few minutes, he calmed down and fell back asleep. When he woke the next time, he didn’t hardly fuss about milk, just snuggled up and went back to sleep! The next day we read the story again several times, and then that night, no tears! No paci throwing! We had successfully night weaned, with minimal emotional turmoil or sleep disruption. Mission accomplished! I do think it was important that he was ready, but I also feel that having the support to review throughout the day and night, and to keep me consistent helped us get it done quicker and with fewer tears.
DOWNLOAD A COPY OF THE NIGHT WEANING SUPPORT HERE
I took out the pictures of my kiddo so you can glue/tape a picture of your kiddo in that spot. I put in a short description of the type of picture I used and a stock photo just as an example on each page. The pictures I used are much bigger than the stock photo, but I wanted it to be small enough for your to cover completely with your own pictures. I hole punched the pages and connected them with key rings, but you could also use string!
Have other ideas on wording or language used to help you child night wean? Let me know what would help! I’d be happy to make a new story template to fit your needs.
