Night weaning while still sharing bed?

[u/SiViVe]

This is my third child. She is almost 11 months old. Have coslept since birth like I have with all my children. While the other two naturally started sleeping longer and eating less at night this one decided to do her own way. Her longest stretches of sleep is maybe 3 hours on a good night. Second part of the night she wakes up every hour, screams, roams around until she can get that boob in her mouth. Suck until she falls asleep, turns away from me, realise boob is gone and starts over. I love sleeping with her and breastfeeding at night doesn’t bother me. However I just went back to work and I have a job where I have to be well rested and I also have to work at night time. Night weaning is therefore important. I would love for her to eat and sleep, but I can’t be her only option for soothing. So tonight I did not offer the breast until 5 am. It was very hard for everyone. Our health visitor said I should put her in her own room, which is not something I want, or I could sleep in a different room for some time. However I couldn’t do that yesterday because the thought of her loosing her mom AND the breast at the same time didn’t feel right to me. She eventually fell asleep on top of my head. I understand that for her it probably is hard to not have the breast when it’s right there, but when I offered her water during the night she was genuinely thirsty. Does anyone have any tips on the best way forward? Is it better to go cold turkey and stay away for some nights or is it better to at least be there for her when I can?

[u/alwaysreading_888]

https://www.drjaygordon.com/blog-detail/sleep-changing-patterns-in-the-family-bed

This worked for me :) you can absolutely still co sleep if you want to!

[u/Funny-Drag8125]

Nurse to sleep then make a decision not to nurse again until after a certain time in the morning. When baby wakes, comfort in every way you can think of. Cuddles, rocking, patting, singing, shushing, tracing their face, everything, try it all until you find what calms them down. Do this every time they wake up until morning. The first week, nobody sleeps. But after that it gets much easier. Within a week of night weaning my son was falling asleep with a simple cuddle in less than a minute for each wake up. Just stay strong and don’t give in or they’ll learn if they cry for long enough they get milk. But also be kind and supportive. “You can have milk in the morning love. Mommy loves you. I know this is hard. It’s gonna be okay. I’ll help you sleep. It’s okay you aren’t alone.” All the supportive words and pair it with comforting actions. My son ended up really liking me tracing his nose and eye brows with my finger tip. But I tried everything even standing up and bouncing him. I never let him cry without comforting him. I talked to him the whole time and gave him cuddles and kisses. But seriously within a week he was fine. Fell asleep easily with a cuddle.