OK, girls. Some of you may have read my posts about trying and failing at weaning my now 8 mo. old Dd of her df. I started trying to wean her at 7 mos. from her 11:00 df. I followed Tracy's advice (or so I thought) and cluster fed (she's bf) and slowly moved the time earlier. By the time I got down to just a tankup at bedtime (still clustering), she'd wake at 10, 1, 4 or 5 (just one time). Hmmm. . .
I was clustering at 3, 5, 7 and the df. But today, when I was pondering dropping the df (AGAIN!), A LIGHT WENT ON!
I realized that I need to do a 2 hr. cluster before the df, not necessarily at 3, 5 and 7 every time. I started w/ feeds at 7:30 and 9:30. Now I'm at 7 and 9. Next, 6:30 and 8:30, 'til I'm at 5:30 and 7:30 w/ no df. So I didn't really have the cluster concept down.
That's the thing about using books to parent, or even other people's advice (i.e. this website). They give you an outline based on their experience, and you have to try it yourself and fill in the blanks. So while I had the concept right for weaning the df, it wasn't working out in practice b/c the cluster wasn't based on the df.
So what I learned is that if you bf and want to wean the df, start w/ clusters 2 hrs. before the df, working your way back to a feed 2 hrs. before bed w/ a bedtime feed, and then weaning the cluster for good. Once I get to a 5:30 cluster, I guess I'll have to wean that up or back to 3:00 or 7:30.
So I hope this has helped someone else who's having trouble w/ weaning the df.
-court
