Babble

We are co-sleeping, which seems to be violently opposed to in NYC, but for those of you who ARE co-sleeping, are you nursing as well, and when do you able to wean?  Is there a way to co-sleep and wean?  I'd love to hear your experiences....

We co-slept for nine months and then did a modified co-sleep situation until our son was about 14 months old. We were only able to wean once we got him into his own bed. I have no idea how to co-sleep and wean!

I met a brilliant homeschooled "six and three-quarters-year old" yesterday who has coslept all her life.  She likes it, but her mom often ends up shifting to the couch.

We started out co-sleeping with our lads but they wanted more space for themselves, so they were first in cribs in our bedroom, then in their own room.  Nowadays, they start off on their own in their room, but when they wake up in the night, they just wander down and climb on in the bed.

I'm not sure what impact it had on weaning; they self-weaned at about 16 months or so; I can't recall when the bed switches really took place. 

Well we are not in NYC - just about the complete opposite in fact, but we coslept with the girl, and she's still in our bed more often than not.

She weaned at about 2.5, and I think she was in her own bed mostly at that point (it is a bit fuzzy because I was also about 3 months pregnant at the time). For the weaning what we did was talk about it then explain there would now be a time limit on the nursing. At first she could only nurse as long as it took me to sing her favorite snuggling song, then it was to a count of 10. That worked really well - finally it is as if she decided it wasn't worth it any more.

Plus pregnancy changes breastmilk so maybe I can't take any credit at all!

I'm not sure how to co-sleep and night wean. I think most moms find it quite hard. But maybe the song thing would work for you?

We co-slept with our daughter for the first 6 months. After that, she was keeping us awake and we were keeping her awake, so she moved to her crib. We night weaned around 7 months when she started sleeping through the night. We weaned completely at 14 months.

Both of my children slept with us through most of their first 2 years or so.  Sometimes there would be 4 of us in bed.  I don't remember much problem with weaning while sleeping together.  As I was a pretty good milk maker,  drying up hurt quite a bit.  I had to pretty much bind my breasts to save myself a lot of hurt and many wet blouses.  If there was too much whining or trying to nurse we would move the little one to the other side of Daddy.  My children were already using a cup to drink out of and they were eating other food. So maybe they didn't need the the nursing so badly.   I remember I weaned my son because he would run by get a little drink then run on.  When he learned how to unbutton my blouse I knew it was time.  I bet you will get by weaning and co-sleeping just fine. 

 Right now I'm having problems trying to wean my 11 month old of co-sleeping! He loves to fall asleep in my bed, but around 2 or 3 a.m., he starts having dreams that he is in the latest Jackie Chan moive, and he kicks the living hell out of me. I need my sleep back. He hates the crib, but I'm not giving up yet.

We did the co-sleeping initially because of a lack of space in our house and then because I learned how to nurse by just turning on to my side (I can still remember that glorious night). I was not getting as much sleep and he had reached the age when it was okay to wean from the nighttime feedings, and this is when we moved him into his crib. I have read that it helps to gradually wean from the nighttime feedings, if possible... provided your boobs don't explode from filling up and hearing your little one cry. Our little guy weaned himself early (7-months) because of a nasty bout with the stomach flu.

I hope this helps.

I co-slept with two of mine. I weaned my daughter from nighttime nursing (it had been every 2 hours up until then) by telling her that I would hold her at night but that night was time for sleeping and that she could nurse in the morning.  It took a couple of nights, but after that she was great and we continued to co-sleep another 2 years.

My younger son still wants to be in my bed a lot at 3, but I think that's mainly because he's been sick. He weaned when he was a little over 2.

 Good luck!  Every parent has a different story. 

~Karen, Strollerderby 

Hi Karen,

I haven't weaned yet so I don't have any solutions for you there, but just wanted to give you a supportive reply from another NYC mom who co-sleeps.  And I know several others here who do (some are a bit secretive about it for some reason).

Good luck!

Jabs