weaning

So my daughter is now 18 months old and still breast feeding about 6 times a day. Not a big deal (kind of great in a lot of ways), but the drag is 4 of those feedings are in the middle of the night and it's driving my wife and I both crazy. Anyone have any experience in weening? If we don't bring her to bed to bf for a bit, she stays awake and screams her head off and no one sleeps. Any suggestions? I suppose we could start letting her cry it out, but man, how long would that take? I keep hoping she'll just sort of stop and sleep through the night, but that's starting to feel unrealistic.

I should add that I used to be able to rock her to sleep, but over the past month she seems to have become immune to that. Now she just thrashes around to the point that I'm afraid I'll drop her accidently.

Also, I obv meant to title this thread "WEANING" and not start a thread about the band Ween. Christ.

you can night wean without weaning her completely. http://www.kellymom.com/bf/weaning/weaning-night.html

We night weaned around the same time as I was back at work and despairing of having a decent night's rest. Be warned though, even if she drops the BF she won't necessarily sleep through. Aidan often still wakes up once or twice in the night and he's three and a half!

I've heard lots of people recommend the No Cry Sleep Solution http://www.amazon.com/No-Cry-Sleep-Solution-Gentle-Through/dp/0071381392/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1296652723&sr=8-1 should probably get a copy of the toddler version myself! http://www.amazon.com/No-Cry-Sleep-Solution-Toddlers-Preschoolers/dp/0071444912/ref=pd_sim_b_4

Thanks, Vicky. That's a great link.

We have the No Cry Sleep Solution book, but I didn't know about the toddler version. I'll have to pick that up.

I have heard good things about Dr Jay Gordon's night-weaning method: http://drjaygordon.com/attachment/sleeppattern.html

Although have to say that I used controlled crying on Howie and it worked in two nights (he was 9 months, carried on breastfeeding in the day til he was nearly 2). But it was a hard two nights and I could only stand it because I was so much at the end of my tether having not slept more than an hour straight in 9 months!

Wow - that Dr. Gordon method sounds like it might be perfect for us. Thanks for the link, Meg!