by yorkshirepudding » 13 Jul 2016, 20:35
Hugs, it sounds like you're really stressed about it. I weaned Moo at the age CM is now, mainly because I was pregnant and hated him nursing. I had images of me doing it really gently with a little book about it all, but in the end I got really annoyed with him nursing when there was no milk so was just brutal and at bed time would say oh is there no milk, here have some water after about 5 seconds. I still feel guilty about it, I shouted at him a few times my poor boy.
I can't remember what happened when he woke at night, definitely would expect to have wailing then because he wouldn't really wake up just wanted to nurse. But I think I took him in a spare bed and offered him water. Probably did some explaining during the day about no milk (he was only having bed/night time feeds by then) and I don't remember any horror nights.
I know you don't actually have no milk but could you write her a story about no milk at night, and how she gets a special cup for her night time water/ teddy/ whatever you think might make it seem appealing, and then go shopping for that thing. Role play it with her during the day. Try it when you're away? Probably seems a ridiculous idea but maybe the change in surroundings would help break the habit if that's what it is, and you could continue at home in a 'that's just what we do' attitude. That's how I stopped Moo feeding to sleep for naps just before he was 2, just made dh go in a read a story instead one weekend and then carried it on during the next week, even though he initially expected milk. So easy to say now! Probably helped that although I felt a bit guilty about waking our neighbours up so much, they were total bastards who were really noisy themselves!
Mummy to my little Christmas pudding, Moo, December 2012 and a summer pudding, baby E born June 2015